The Wa y of Life 



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I LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. $ 

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If UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.! 



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GLAD TIDINGS; 



THE WAY OF LIFE. 



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By Robert Boyd, D.D , 

Author of " Young Converts," ' My Inquiry Meeting," &c. ; &c. 






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CHICAGO : 

FLEMING H. REVELL, 

Publisher of Evangelical Literature. 

1876. 



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$ 




Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876, 

By FLEMING H. REVELL, 

in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 



CONTENTS, 



PAGE. 

I. Good News, ------- 5 

II. Immanuel, God with Us. - - - - - 11 

III. Sinai and Calvary, - 16 

IV. The Spirit Striving : <- - - 21 
V. Saving Faith, - - 27 

VI. Obscuring Clouds, - 33 

VII, Mighty to Save, - 39 

VIII. Peace with God, - 46 

IX. The Thirsty Invited, - - 52 

X. The New Creature - - 64 

XI. Working for Jesu:- ~ 71 

XII. The Gospel Feast, - - - - - 77 



GLAD TIDI NGS. 



CHAPTER I. 



GOOD NEWS. 



There is much misunderstanding in the minds of many in 
regard to the word " Gospel." Some think of everything they 
hear preached from the Bible under this general appellation 
Whether the minister be preaching on the being of a God, the 
immortality of the soul, or on the moral duties which arise from 
our social relationships, it is all, by such persons, called preach- 
ing the Gospel. Some time ago we heard a minister preach en 
the subject of prayer. It was a faithful and powerful sermon. 
It lifted the soul up to God, and made many a hearer say, " It 
is good to be here." At the close of the services we heard one 
of the hearers say to another, " That was a fine Gospel sermon." 
Now, the fact is, there was not one word of Gospel in it. A 
man may preach a whole year, or for that part, a whole lifetime, 
and preach truth, too, and yet not preach the Gospel. 

The celebrated Andrew Fuller once heard a young brother 
preach a sermon which might be called eloquent and learned. 
When the preacher came down from the pulpit, Fuller laid his 
hand upon his shoulder, and said, " I thank you for your ser- 
mon ; it was very good, as fqr as it went'' "As far as it 
went!" said the preacher. " Yes," said Fuller, " as far as it 
went, for Christ was not preached." " But Christ was not in 



6 GLAD TIDINGS. 

the Text," replied the young man. " My brother," said Fuller, 
*' there are no by-lanes in this country which do not lead up to 
the King's highway." All the lines of truth centre in Jesus, and 
that is a poor dry morsel of a sermon that does not contain 
enough of the Gospel, to lead any inquiring soul present to 
pardon and peace. We greatly admire the sentiment of one of 
the ancient Fathers — "Were the highest heavens my pulpit, and 
the whole hosts of the redeemed my audience, and eternity my 
day, Jesus alone would be my text." 

The Gospel means "good news," and is a proclamation from 
the God of heaven to his guilty creatures on earth, that for the 
sake of what Jesus has done, he will pardon all who trust in 
his faithful work, and receive them as welcomely as if they had 
never sinned at all. It comes to tell of a way by which we 
can come to God as joyfully as Adam could before he fell. 
God's Fatherly voice sounds to us from the heavens, saying, 
" This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." The 
good news is in that sentence. Observe, the voice from heaven 
did not say, with whom I am well pleased, though that is true. 
Neither does it say for whom I am well pleased, though that is 
also true. But it says in whom I am well pleased. It is only 
when we see God in Christ Jesus that we can see a well-pleased 
God. In that one sentence, God himself preached the Gospel to 
that awe-struck throng which stood upon the banks of Jordan ; 
and through them to all the ends of the earth. 

If we approach God out of Christ, he is a consuming fire. 
Let the best man that ever lived come before God with the best 
action he ever performed, and out of Christ God cannot be well 
pleased with him. His best performances are in God's pure 
eyes corrupted to the very core by sin. But let the vilest sin- 
ner come to God in Christ, and there is lifted up upon him a 
reconciled countenance, the smile of approval beams upon his 
soul with the very joy of heaven, and lifting up his eyes to the 
face of the Judge, he exclaims, "Abba, Father." Indeed a 
holy and a just God could bestow upon guilty man no favor, 
either temporal or spiritual, except through the worthiness of 
His Son. 



GOOD NEWS. 7 

A person once said, " How am I to know that Jesus died for 
me ?" The reply was, " Do you acknowledge that you have 
been all your life a sinner?" "I do." "And do you believe 
that the desert of sin is the wrath and curse of God?" " Yes." 
" Why, then, is it that you have been all your life long getting 
nothing from God's hand but blessings?" This inquirer saw 
at once that the very sparing forbearance of God that had per- 
mitted him to live, and the goodness of God that strewed his 
pathway with blessings, could only come to him through the 
death of Jesus. 

Suppose, my reader, that a friend comes into your house to- 
day and says, " I have good news for you ;" you would under- 
stand by that, that he had something to tell you that would 
make you happy. And if after he has made his statement you 
are not any happier than before, one of two things must be the 
case, — either your friend was mistaken as to the nature of the 
intelligence, and it was not calculated to make you happy ; or 
else you did not believe what he said. Now, when God sends 
the Gospel to us he says it is good news, that is, something in- 
tended to make us happy ; and if after we have heard it we are 
not made happy by it, either God calls that good news which is 
not so, or we have not believed his word. Yes, the only reason 
why you, my reader, are not now rejoicing in the forgiving love 
of God, is that you have not believed his testimony concerning 
his Son. You can believe your fellowmen when they say they 
have good news for you ; you can take up the newspaper, with 
a face beaming with expectation, when you are told there is. 
good news for you in it ; and yet your neglected Bible lies in 
your houses containing something calculated and intended to 
make you unspeakably happy ; and you will not believe it. 

O, it is matter of vastest difficulty to get men to believe that 
the whole work of their salvation is finished already ! They 
will acknowledge that the favor of God is a precious thing; they 
will speak of making their peace with God ; and hope that he 
will be reconciled to them. But tell them of a love that has 
already made the peace ; tell them of a grace that has already 
finished the salvation; tell them of a goodness so abundant 



o GLAD TIDINGS. 

and overflowing that it has absolutely left them nothing to 
do but to believe that all is done, — and you seem to them as one 
who mocks. Whenever they think of becoming serious, of cul- 
tivating good feelings, of breaking off their outward sins, and 
of prayer, they think of things that are to qualify them for com- 
ing to Jesus, and that will make God pleased with them ; for- 
getting that until they go to Jesus through faith, and come to 
God for acceptance through the righteousness of his Son, they 
have not taken the very first step in true religion. 

Self-righteousness, in some form or other, is the universal sin 
of man. Wherever man is found to exist, it reigns supreme in 
the unrenewed heart. The moment the sinner begins to think 
or speak on religion, this evil shows itself. With the light of 
the Gospel blazing around him, with Calvary's solemn scenes 
portrayed in blood before him, he yet feels as if he must be ac- 
cepted by God on the ground of some good prayer, some good 
feelings, or some good deeds performed by himself. Now, the 
best obedience that man can render in his fallen state is imper- 
fect. And an imperfect obedience is just a sinful obedience — 
a wicked obedience. Now, if God were to accept men on the 
ground of such obedience, it would be virtually declaring that 
his law had been too strict — had been wrong. From that mo- 
ment his holy law would be impeached, would lose its power 
among all intelligent beings, and its holy authority would be for- 
ever gone. 

Let the sinner start for heaven on the ground of his own im- 
perfect righteousness, and he can only get there by trampling, 
at every step, upon the holy law of the God of heaven. And 
allowing him at last to get there on the ground of his own im- 
perfect obedience, his presence would strike terror into every 
holy heart in heaven. The songs of that holy place would die 
away in groans. Its inhabitants would feel that all protection 
was gone, all confidence gone — if God's perfect law was gone. 
How, then, can the sinner hope for salvation in a way that would 
swallow up heaven itself in the misery of hell. 

Were God to accept the sinner on the ground of his own 
righteousness, it would be declaring the death of his own Son 



GOOD NEWS. 9 

unnecessary. It would be saying that it had been in vain that 
the blood of Jesus was shed. It would be to declare the atone- 
ment a piece of folly — nay, of absolute wickedness. The very 
fact that God's own Son had to die, shows that nothing but a 
perfect righteousness would do, a righteousness so perfect that 
God's pure eye cannot see a single flaw in it. It shows that we 
needed a righteousness no less than Divine, and here it is pro- 
vided in Christ crucified. Sinner ! abandon at once the vain 
attempt to make a covering for yourself, by patching together 
the fig-leaves of your own works ; for to you in God's great name 
we proclaim the Gospel's joyful sound — a righteousness unto all, 
and upon all, who believe. 

My dear reader, if you are ever saved at all, you must be 
saved by simple faith in Christ's work. We know that the nat- 
ural heart hates this doctrine, and that it contradicts all man's 
preconceived notions of religion. It lays pride in the dust and 
leaves the soul no room for boasting. Take the holiest man 
now living, and the vilest sinner that treads God's earth, and it 
is faith in the merits of Jesus that has made the difference. 

Suppose we had been in the city of Philippi that night when 
the jailor was converted. It is the dark, midnight hour, and 
the city is wrapped in silence and gloom. We stand opposite 
to a gloomy-looking building, and as we gaze upon it through 
the darkness, it begins to heave to and fro, as if rocked in the 
grasp of an earthquake. Hark ! A voice of deep human agony 
breaks upon our ear. It is the voice of the jailor himself, smitten 
by the bolt of divine truth, and his words are, "What shall I do to 
be saved?" And what are the directions which the Apostles 
give him ? Do they tell him he must pray, that he must get 
deeper feeling, more convictions of his sinful state, and do 
something to prepare himself for coming to Jesus ? No such 
directions do we find coming from the lips of these heaven-in- 
spired men; though, alas ! there are not wanting in our day pro- 
fessed ministers of the Gospel who would give just such in- 
struction. 

An inquirer was urged some time ago to go to the Lord's Sup- 
per, by a minister. " How can I, when 1 have no hope in Christ ?" 



IO GLAD TIDINGS. 

was the reply. " O come to the communion, and you will feel 
better," said the minister. How beautifully do the Apostle's 
words contrast with this. " Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ 
and thou shalt be saved." And what did the jailor do? Did 
he say, " That is too easy a way of being saved : it is not possible 
that so vile a man as I am could be saved in that way" ? No ! 
at once he believed in the Son of God as his Saviour, and his 
heart was brimming over with joy. An old writer says there 
are but three steps to heaven — " out of self, into Christ, and in- 
to glory." If you are out of Christ, whatever may be the out- 
ward morality of your conduct, you are condemned already — 
living under the curse of the law, and the bolt of God's wrath 
may at any moment strike you. There is but one safe spot for 
you in the whole universe, and that is as a humble believer at 
the cross of Christ. 



CHAPTER II. 

IMMANUEL, GOD WITH US. 
" He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father." 

These words came from the lips of the Lord Jesus, and there 
are no words like his words. They burn into the soul for they 
are words of heavenly fire. Words of wisdom have been spoken 
by Christ's people, for the brightest intellects and the most pow- 
erful eloquence have been devoted to his service ; but " never 
man spake like this man." Something of God, it is true, we can 
learn from his works ; and as we gaze upon the lofty over-hang- 
ing cliff, the sky-piercing mountain, or the vast ocean, we are 
penetrated with feelings of profoundest awe ; we exclaim, "Great 
and Infinite God !" and the cry is taken up in the heavens, and 
is re-echoed from world to world throughout infinite space. 

But nature, in all her vastness, says not one word on what, as 
sinners, we most want to hear — pardon. Not a whisper of for- 
giveness comes to us from the blue heavens above us, nor from 
any of the works of God around us. The thought of the great 
God, girt with omnipotence, makes us afraid. The great, infi- 
nite, all-pervading Spirit we cannot comprehend. The thought 
of going into his presence repels rather than attracts. — " I re- 
membered God and was troubled." 

But when God comes near to us in human flesh, when God 
approaches me in the person of a man like myself, when I hear 
God speaking to me through human lips, looking kindly upon 
me through human eyes, dropping over my wretchedness human 
tears, and heaving over me human groans, as he speaks to me 
of love, of pardon, and of adoption into his family of love, the 
guilty dread of God flees away, and perfect love, that casteth out 
all fear, takes its place. Now this is what we see in the God- 
man — "God manifest in the flesh." 

Suppose that you were to enter a friend's house, and see his 



12 GLAD TIDINGS. 

little children amusing themselves with that perfect enjoyment 
of the present peculiar to childhood ; not a cloud upon their 
fair brows, not a shade of sorrow upon their faces. You are 
standing and admiring the lovely scene, when, all at once, the 
father of these children is heard at the door, and in a moment 
the whole scene is changed. The children look around in ter- 
ror; the faces so lately flushed with joy are now pale with fear> 
and they each make haste to hide themselves from the father as 
from an object of aversion and dread. Now, in witnessing such 
a sight as this, you would know that one of two things must be 
the case : either that father is a tyrant, and i$ in the habit of 
abusing his children, or else these children are conscious of hav- 
ing done wrong in his absence, and, therefore, are afraid to face 
him. 

Why has the sinner that dread of God which makes him shun 
the very thought of his Creator, as the essence of all that is 
gloomy and forbidding ? Why does he dread the idea of going 
into God's presence, and coming so near the universal Father 
as death brings men ? It cannot be because God has ever done 
him any wrong, for the hand that he dreads has been engaged 
in scattering mercies upon his pathway, and every gesture of 
that hand has been inviting him near. The voice he dreads to 
hear has been tuned to accents of love, and has sounded after 
him down the broad road to death — " Turn ye, turn ye, — why 
will ye die ?" Why, then, this slavish dread at the thought of 
God ? Why this enmity and aversion ? Ah ! it is because the 
soul is conscious of guilt, and of having wickedly lifted the stan- 
dard of rebellion against its best friend. It is because this con- 
sciousness of guilt makes him think of God as a God of wrath, 
the red thunderbolt of whose indignation is about to leap from 
his right hand for the sinner's destruction. 

Now, man can neither love God nor enjoy happiness till this 
feeling is destroyed, and till entire confidence in Jehovah's love 
is restored. We see these remarks illustrated in our first pa- 
rents. As long as they believed in God's love, they remained 
holy and happy; the moment they believed Satan's lie, who 
taught them that God was selfish, — that he was keeping some- 



IMMANUEL, GOD WITH US. 



13 



thing back from them that was really good for them, and the 
reason why this good was kept back was lest they should come 
to know as much as himself, — the very moment they believed 
this falsehood, they fell, and guilty dread of God took the place 
of confidence and love. 

The very beings who but a few moments before were sending 
up their songs of love and joy, and forming no unhappy har- 
mony with the loftier songs of heaven, are now in terror fleeing 
from the sound of the Lord's voice, and trying to hide them- 
selves among the trees of the garden. Why is Adam now so 
unhappy ? As yet there is no change in his outward surround- 
ings. The fruits are as pleasant to the taste, the flowers are as 
fragrant to the smell, the air as balmy, and the music of the 
birds as sweet as ever. His body is yet in paradise, but in his 
soul have begun the very elements of hell — a plain proof that 
no outward possessions can make man happy while his soul is 
estranged from the fountain of all good. 

In " Immanuel, God with us," we see Satan's lie fully refuted. 
We see the God we supposed was full of vindictive wrath, com- 
ing near to us in human flesh, with the tear of pity in his eye 
and words of inviting love upon his lips. We see that God so 
loved us, that he stepped from his throne at the very summit of 
glory, and sought for us on the mountains of sin. We see that 
we do not need to do anything to make God love us, for that 
love has existed all along; that we do not need to do something 
to reconcile God to us, for whoever was in the wrong must come 
and be reconciled to the right ; hence God is in Christ recon- 
ciling not himself to the world, but the world to himself. 

In short, we see that as man departed from God by believ- 
ing Satan's lie, and disbelieving God's truth, so he must return 
by disbelieving Satan's lie, and believing God's truth. And as 
he lost his happiness when he lost his confidence in God's dis- 
interested love, so he can never regain his happiness till he be- 
lieves in that love as displayed in Christ Jesus. Hence it is 
written, " Acqtiaint thyself with God and be at peace with him." 
And again, " They that know Thee shall put their trust in 
Thee." That is, the moment they really know God, as he is re- 



14 GLAD TIDINGS. 

vealed in the Gospel, that moment they are at peace with Him. 
But a man may know about God, and yet not know God. He 
may be a profound theologian, and be able to discourse elo- 
quently upon the attributes of God, and yet in the true spirit- 
ual sense know no more of him than a Hottentot. To know 
God is to know him as my forgiving Father, and this I can only 
know through Jesus Christ His Son. 

In the light of these remarks, how important does the doc- 
trine of Christ's divinity appear ! Take away that truth out of 
the Bible, and you shatter to pieces humanity's life-boat, and 
leave man a miserable wreck upon the shores of eternity. This 
is the keystone of that bridge that crosses the gulf of human 
despair, and let it be taken away and the whole fabric falls to 
pieces. This is the most dangerous error that has ever cursed 
our world, for it strikes at the root of the atonement, the only 
Vope of man. Hence, when Infidels would destroy Christianity 
under the most plausible form, they have begun by denying the 
divinity of Christ. If some being vested with great power 
wished to destroy our solar system, it would not be necessary 
to go from orb to orb, destroying one after another : it would 
only be necessary to dash out the sun, and the whole would 
rush wiloHy into one mass of ruin. So men wishing to be call- 
ed Christians, have taken away our Lord's divinity, and thus 
removed the life and power of the whole Christian system. 
But they cannot impose upon the pious soul, the dead body for 
the living form. When they talk of Christ, it is not the Christ 
of the Bible they speak of, but a Christ formed in their own 
train imaginations ; and however much they may extol him as a 
good and, virtuous man, the believer says, " Ye have taken away 
my Lord, and I know not where ye have laid him." 

Sinner ! In the tears and sufferings of the God-man, see how 
great must be your danger. The tears of Jesus over your per- 
ishing state, and the deep anxieties of his soul for your salva- 
tion, show how fearful is your peril. You are out in a 
steamboat upon the lake, enjoying a pleasure excursion, on a 
lovely summer day. There is not a cloud in the sky, nor a 
ripple upon the waters. The calm bosom of the lake reflects 



1MMANUEL, GOD WITH US. 1 5 

all that is bright and beautiful in the firmament above. The 
thought of danger never crosses your mind, and you are sinking 
down into sweet enjoyment of the whole scene, when suddenly 
you see the captain rush across the deck with tears rolling down 
his cheeks, and much excited ; you also see the crew deeply af- 
fected, and you would at once begin to think there must be 
danger, though you could not see it. 

Now, when we see God in human form weeping and bleeding 
for sinners, there must be some fearful peril — there must be 
some deep damnation, on the brink of which your soul is top- 
pling ! O, at once go to the Captain of our Salvation, and cry, 
" Lord save, or I perish ! " — and that hand that bears the print of 
the nail, and yet is the hand that guides the stars in their 
courses, will pluck you from destruction, and give you a place 
among his loved ones on earth, and at last among his redeemed 
ones in heaven. But remember that the same hand that is 
strong to save is also strong to smite. The feet of those who have 
carried others to their burial, may be at the door to entomb you. 
The shuttle may have passed the loom and have woven the last 
garment in which your cold corpse is to be enshrouded, and 
this night your soul may stand before God. Dear reader, 
would you dare to stand there in a Christless state ? As a con- 
suming fire would that holy presence be to your guilty soul. 



CHAPTER Til. 

SINAI AND CALVARY. 
" He that believeth not is condemned already." 

It is not necessary for the man out of Christ to wait tiTl the 
day of his death, or the day of Judgment, to be condemned, for 
now he is under the curse of the law ; and the curse of the law 
is the curse of God. Go where he will, do what he may, that 
curse is upon him. He may banish the remembrance of it from 
his thoughts ; he may plunge into scenes of gay and fashionable 
resort ; he may engross his mind with the cares and perplexities 
of business ; he may roam amid the fields of literature and art, 
and expand his intellect amid the wonderful revelations of t sci- 
ence; but employ himself as he may, the sentence of death has 
gone forth against him ; and the execution of that sentence is 
only suspended to afford him an opportunity of going to Christ 
for pardon and eternal life. 

When he lies upon his bed at night that curse surrounds it 
like a curtain ; when he walks by the way it is his attendant ; 
and when he laughs in the theatre, or in the bar-room, or at the 
festive board, that tremendous curse frowns in wrath over his 
head. The law says, " Cursed is every one that continueth not 
in all things that are written in the book of the law, to do 
them." Now, dear reader, if you can show that since the mo- 
ment that you became a responsible being to the present time, 
you have never sinned in thought, word, or deed ; that you have 
loved God with all your heart, and your neighbor as yourself, 
during the whole of your life, — then you are not under the curse, 
but can claim eternal life as a right, according to the terms of 
the law : " Do and live." Your conscience testifies, however 
that you have not thus lived a perfectly holy life, and the want 
of this perfect holiness brings upon you the curse of which we 
have spoken. 

16 



SINAI AND CALVARY. I 7 

No man will ever go to Christ for a blessing till he feels him- 
self burdened with this curse. The hoarse, stern voice of jus- 
tice, must be heard from Sinai, pronouncing our condemnation, 
before we will listen to the " still small voice " of love from Cal- 
vary, declaring our justification. It is in vain that you press 
food upon a man who is not hungry, or offer alms to one who 
thinks himself rich and increased in goods. So, till the soul 
feels its lost and undone condition, there will be no music in 
the name Jesus, and no attraction in Calvary. The sinner must 
be made to feel that God cannot permit his law to be trampled 
upon with impunity, and that sin is the most fearful thing in the 
whole universe ; for if it is pardoned, it can only be blotted out 
through the untold sufferings of God's own Son, — if unpardon- 
ed, it must be followed by an eternity of woe. 

A German Prince, upon visiting France went to see the place 
where many convicts were confined. In compliment to his 
rank, he was permitted to signalize his visit by giving one of the 
convicts his liberty. He spoke to one man, whose intelligent 
look attracted his notice, and asked him for what crime he was 
suffering. In reply the convict began to tell him the most un- 
likely story of his innocence, and of how false witnesses swore 
against him. The Prince left him and put the same question to 
another, who also denied his guilt, and averred that he was mis- 
taken for another man. The same question was put to several 
others, and with the same result ; till at last he came to a man 
whose solemn and melancholy cast of countenance attracted his 
notice. The man's reply was, " I have been a vile wretch, and 
have deserved far more than my present punishment. I have 
set at open defiance the laws both of God and men, and am not 
fit to look upon God's blue heavens or the green earth." The 
Prince, turning to his attendants, said, " Set this man free ; he is 
in a fit state of mind to make a proper use of his liberty." 

It is thus that the Prince of Peace receives and pardons the 
sinner, when he is in a state of mind that justifies God and con- 
demns himself. When the pride of the soul is subdued, then 
the sinner ceases to look at himself in the mirror of the world's 
notions and maxims about human nature, which makes the 



15 GLAD TIDINGS. 

most deformed look comely in their own eyes; but he now 
looks at himself in the mirror of God's law, and the result is, he 
sees himself in some measure as God sees him; and " abhors 
himself, and repents in dust and ashes." 

We have an illustration of the truth of these remarks in the 
religion? history of the Apostle Paul. He says, " I was alive 
witaout the law once; but when the commandment came, sin 
revived, and I died." He stood high in his own estimation. 
He thought himself in high favor with God — as good as any of 
his acquaintances, and better than most. He tells us that the 
reason of this good opinion of himself was, that he was " with- 
out the law." This does not mean that he was without the 
knowledge of the law, for, doubtless, from a child he could re- 
peat the law of God correctly. 

But it means that he was ignorant of the far-reaching spiritu- 
ality of God's law, extending as it does to the thoughts and feel- 
ings of the heart. He could point to one commandment after 
another, and proudly say, " I have never broken any of them," 
and so far as the outward act is concerned, this was doubtless 
true ; but he forgot that the revengeful thought is murder, that 
the covetous thought is theft, and that the unchaste thought is 
adultery ; he forgot that it is in vain that we go through a heart- 
less round of religious ceremonies, if love to God is not the 
grand motive power that governs our lives. Hence, when the 
spirituality of the law flashed upon his mind, in the light of a 
new conviction, and, to use his own words, "the commandment 
came, sin revived, and I died," then the sins of his whole life 
appeared before him, unpardoned, black in their aggravations, 
and loudly calling for God's wrath upon his head. His hope 
perished ; his delusion was torn away ; the fabric that he had 
built upon the sand lay around him, a pile of ruins. Sin 
seemed "exceeding sinful." 

Like a man who supposed himself rich and increased with 
goods, and who, with much self-complacency, put his hand into 
his pocket to pull out his well-filled purse, and instead, put his 
fingers upon the slimy folds of a loathsome serpent that lies 
there. With what loathing and disappointment would he draw 



CALVARY AND SINAI. 1 9 

back his hand ! Like a man who supposes himself well dressed, 
and is on the way to attend a gay and fashionable party, but 
when he enters the well-lighted room, and when the scrutiny of 
a hundred eyes is on him, he looks upon himself, and finds that 
he is covered with "filthy rags." — With what shame and confusion 
would he shrink away ! Thus it was with Paul when he saw 
the purity of God's law, and felt himself the subject of its ter- 
rible curse. When he was thus emptied of self, he was in a 
state to be filled with Christ ; and when his false hope went out 
in darkness, the hope in Jesus, " that maketh not ashamed,'' 
arose in imperishable splendor upon his soul. In his own 
words, "the law was a schoolmaster to bring him to Christ." 

We see, then, that the reason why there are so many who are 
boasting of their morality and wrapping themselves up in a 
self-righteous security is because they measure themselves by a 
false standard of their own making. And until they can be in- 
duced to abandon that false measure, and try themselves by the 
perfect purity of God's law, the cross of Christ will appear to 
them foolishness, and those truths that fill all heaven with rap- 
ture will fall upon their ears as the whistling of the empty wind. 
Here is a man, for example, who thinks that all God requires 
of him is to live a strictly moral life. To be honest in his deal- 
ings with his fellowmen, to be kind and benevolent to the suffering 
and the destitute, to be a good citizen, and discharge with fidelity 
the relative duties of life — this is his standard of duty, and he 
comes up to it. He is an honest man. He is a kind neighbor, a 
good husband, an affectionate father. He has a great respect for 
religion and for its ministers. He goes regularly to the house of 
God, and contributes liberally to the support of the Gospel. 
In short, he comes up, in every respect, to his own standard of 
what a Christian should be, and the result is, he is at peace. No 
disturbing doubt alarms him. He is " alive without the law." 
Such a man can never be converted, can never repent and 
believe in Christ, till he is induced to measure himself by a dif- 
ferent standard. Such a man may like to hear the most faithful 
preaching, because he is persuaded that it does not mean him. 
And men like to hear the condemnation of things that they never 
will take home to themselves. They like to hear God's threat- 



20 GLAD TIDINGS. 

enings spoken in a way that never touches their consciences. 
They like practical preaching that does not rebuke them. Some 
years ago I met a man whose case may illustrate the above re- 
marks. In the course of some conversation on religious sub- 
jects, I asked him if he was a Christian. He seemed astonished 
at the question, but promptly replied that he was. I then asked 
him how long it was since the great change had taken place. 
He replied that his parents had been good Christian people; 
that in his infancy he had been baptized into the true church; 
that he regularly received the sacrament from the hands of the 
minister; and that he did riot know what I meant by the great 
change. I told him that though it was a great privilege to be 
born of pious parents, yet the religion of heaven was not hered- 
itary — not a thing that ran in the blood; that as to his belong- 
ing to the true church, that could not save him, for Judas out- 
wardly belonged to the true church, and yet went to hell ; that 
his baptism could not save him, for Simon was baptized by the 
hands of an inspired Apostle, and yet " had neither part nor lot 
in this matter." I read the conversation of our Lord with Nico- 
demus, and urged upon him the necessity of a change of heart. 
He now became very solemn, said he knew that he had not at- 
tended to these things as he ought, but that of late he had become 
a changed character ; that for the last few weeks he had read 
three chapters out of the Bible, and prayed three times every 
day; and, if that was not religion, he did not know what it was. 
I tried to show him the purity and far-reaching nature of God's 
law ; that as a sinner the curse of the law was upon him ; and 
that, though he could begin from that moment and live a per- 
perfectly holy life till the moment of his death, even then he 
could not be saved, for his past sins, in all their condemning 
power, would still be against him. I tried to lead him to Cal- 
vary for salvation. Pointing him to a finished work that his 
own good works, and prayers, and tears could add nothing to, I 
told him that at that moment there was nothing between him and 
pardon but his own wibelief. He was urged to believe that 
Jesus died for him as if he had been the only sinner in the 
world. He received the testimony of God, and was soon able 
to say with Paul, " He loved vie and gave himself for vie." 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE SPIRIT STRIVING. 



A thoughtless sinner ! It is hard to conceive of a more mel- 
ancholy sight. With the certainty of soon standing in the 
presence of a holy God ; with innumerable sins staining his 
soul, not one of which he can wash away ; with a soul more 
valuable than he has even imagination to conceive of, and that 
must be suffering or enjoying, when suns and systems shall have 
gone to the general pile of ruin ; with responsibilities under 
which an angel might tremble, — there he is, utterly careless. 

The Great God has taken such a deep interest in his welfare, 
that for a time he emptied heaven of the most lovely object in 
it, and sent his Son on a mission of love to the perishing mil- 
lions of our race. The Son so loved him, that he endured the 
agonies of the cross, and refused to come down till he had fin- 
ished the work of human redemption. The Holy Spirit feels 
such an interest in him, that, though hating his sins with a per- 
fect hatred, He still follows him with the importunities of love. 
The holy angels take such an interest in him that they watch 
for his repentance ; and yet, there he is, careless about himself! 

But when the sinner begins to think, — to look eternity and 
all its awful realities in the face, — his case is truly hopeful. 
See that young man ta"ken out of a river, supposed to be 
drowned. The physician is using every means to restore ani- 
mation. The mother of that youth hangs over him in an agony 
of suspense ; and when at last there is seen the first movements 
of returning life, the fluttering of the heart, the quivering of 
the eyelids, and the heaving of the deep groan, I see that mother 
clasp her hands, and, turning her tearful eyes to heaven, she 
cries, " Thank God, he lives." 

Sinner, the Book of God describes you as dead in " trespasses 
and sins," and this is true, not only of the most abandoned sin- 



22 GLAD TIDINGS. 

ners, but of the most amiable and moral. Death appears in 
different forms, sometimes horrid and revolting, and sometimes 
lovely and attractive. Go over the battle field, after the con- 
flict is over, and you will see death in some of its most revolt- 
ing forms ; but look upon that babe on its mother's knee, upon 
whose lovely countenance death has just stamped his seal, and 
death is seen there in a most attractive aspect; but the man 
slain in battle and the babe are both alike dead. 

And it is the Holy Spirit alone that can speak life into the 
dead soul. We might gather around one sinner all the faithful 
ministers of the Gospel now living, and all the praying people 
who hold up their arms by their fervent supplications ; and they 
might try by their prayers and exhortations to save the soul of 
that one sinner and continue their efforts for years, and they 
could not produce one good thought, nor one saving impres- 
sion, without the influence of the Holy Spirit. 

Dear reader, if this Divine Agent has indeed begun to ope- 
rate upon your soul, and to produce some signs of spiritual life, 
it is with you a very solemn and critical period. You cannot 
remain long in this state, for either you will allow the Spirit to 
lead you to the Lord Jesus for pardon and peace, or you will 
resist him, and sink back into a state of more hardened obdu- 
racy. A crisis — a turning point in the history of your soul — has 
come when it will be easier for you to become a Christian, than 
it ever was before, or, perhaps, than it ever will be again. 

The Spirit has startled your soul from its long and death-like 
torpor. The people of God are praying for you, and trying to 
point you to the Lamb of God. The word preached from the 
pulpit sounds to you now as it never did before ; pointed, per- 
sonal, and solemn as the blast of the last trumpet, it reaches 
your trembling heart with an awakening, "Thou art the man !" 
Memory is turning over the pages of your past life, and the sins 
you have committed, the prayers and counsels of a pious mother 
that you have despised, the Sabbaths you have squandered, — 
all are speaking to you in words of rebuke that are heard 
through every chamber of the soul. Oh ! now is the most fa- 
vorable time you will ever have to accept the offers of the 
Gospel ! 



THE SPIRIT STRIVING. ~3 

But resist the Spirit, and your mind will become dark as per- 
dition on the things of God, and the things that belong to your 
personal salvation will be regarded with a sullen indifference. 
God will say, " He is joined to his idols, let him alone ;" and of 
all the calamities that ean happen to the soul on this side of 
perdition, to be let alone is the most terrible. 

When the benevolent monks who reside on the Alps go out 
amid the snow storm to search for travelers who, overcome by 
fatigue and cold, have sunk down to perish, they always know 
when they come to a person whose case is hopeless, from the 
fact that he is very hard to awake, and when they do get him 
partially aroused, he is very angry at being disturbed, and in- 
sists on being allowed to remain where he is. So is it with 
those Gospel-hardened sinners who have long resisted the Spirit, 
and whose souls are bound up in the chains of a mighty lethar- 
gy. When a revival sweeps through a whole community, and 
enters the very house where such a man lives, he slumbers on 
in indifference, or else becomes a deadly opposer. He even 
glories in his shame, and boasts of how calm he can keep amid 
the general excitement. 

But the calm he boasts of is like that fearful calm we some- 
times see in nature, when a storm is brewing in the heavens, and 
is about to break forth in desolating power. It is the calm 
which the sick man feels, when the inflammation that tortures 
his body has turned into mortification. He thinks himself bet- 
ter, his friends congratulate him on his improvement ; but the 
physician looks gloomy, for he knows that soon his heart will 
be struggling wildly under the attack of death. So the sinner 
has resisted the Spirit, till his convictions have all left him, and 
he cries, "peace and safety," when destruction is thundering at 
his door. 

The great sin that the Spirit comes to convince of, is the sin 
of unbelief. The Lord's own words are, " When he is come, 
he shall reprove the world of sin ; of sin, because they believe 
not in me." It was not enough that Jesus died for the guilty 
and made salvation free as the air we breathe, or as the moun- 
tain torrent, leaping from rock to rock, for such is the deep de- 



24 GLAD TIDINGS. 

pravity of the human heart, that not one of the whole race 
would have believed in this boundless love, did not the Holy- 
Spirit come to convince of unbelief. I know of nothing that 
shows more clearly the extent of our undone and lost state by 
nature than this, — that it needed not only God in our nature to 
die for us, but it needs God the Spirit, to convince us that we 
need such a Saviour at all. 

The proper definition of unbelief, as given by the Bible, is 
truly fearful. It is there described as making God a liar. 
Reader, suppose that you were to have your veracity doubted 
by all around you, day after day ; that your family, your neigh- 
bors, the persons with whom you do business every day, all were 
to turn away from your words as unworthy of belief, — how bitter- 
ly would you feel ! What indignation would fill your heart ! 
And how must the Great God feel, when the very creatures for 
whom he has done so much — for whom he has made infinite sac- 
rifices — refuse to credit his words, and cast them back in his face 
with contempt ! Is it any wonder that the unalterable decree 
has gone forth from the Eternal Throne, " He that believeth not 
shall be damned " ? 

But it is not often that unbelief will, in words, contradict God. 
Occasionally some bold blasphemer may dare to do this, but, 
generally, the unbeli«f of the heart will assume a more pious, 
and, therefore, a more da?igerous form. As Satan transforms 
himself into an angel of light, so the sin of unbelief will often 
come in the garb of the most profound humility. It will say, 
" I am too great a sinner for Christ to pardon me." This is a 
sham humility, and has its origin in an " evil heart of unbelief, 
departing from the living God." 

Suppose that the Mayor of this city were to issue a proclama- 
tion, calling upon all the destitute poor of the place, to come to 
his office, and they would get bread freely, " without money 
and without price." But, suppose, on that very day, in passing 
along the street, that I see a man weeping bitterly, who, upon 
my asking him the cause of his distress, informs me he is in a 
starving state. I point him to the proclamation, and show him 
the office where he can get immediate relief. But he says, " I 



THE SPIRIT STRIVING. 2 5 

am too hungry to get anything ; the proclamation cannot mean 
those who are so hungry as I am !" Why, we would think the 
man was mad if we heard him speak in this style. We would 
tell him that his hunger and destitution formed his only quali- 
fication for coming. 

And this is what the Spirit seeks to impress upon the mind of 
the awakened sinner. He tells him that his sins, which he is 
making a reason for staying away from Christ, are his only qual- 
ifications for coming to him. An awakened sinner was once 
bewailing his sins in the presence of Lady Huntington, and at 
last, in the bitterness of his soul, cried out, " I am lost." " I am 
glad to hear it," said the pious lady. " What," said he, " glad 
to hear that I am lost ?" " Yes," was the reply, " for Jesus came 
to seek and to save that which was lost." The Holy Spirit 
took that word and applied it to his heart ; he saw that the 
cause of his despondency was unbelief; and he there and then 
received Christ by faith, "and went on his way rejoicing." 

Another reason why the Spirit seeks to convince of unbelief 
is that this is the damning sin, and the cause of every other sin. 
Why is this man a swearer, a drunkard, a Sabbath-breaker, or 
an open transgressor of the law of God ? It is because he has 
not believed with the heart on the Son of God. The moment 
the soul so believes, " faith works by love, and purifies the heart.'* 
The Spirit of God does not seek to induce the sinner to cut off 
this outward sin, and another outward sin, leaving the great 
root of all sin in the heart untouched. 

This would be like a man who wanted to cut down a tree, 
and would begin with his knife at the top branches, and so 
work his way down, instead of laying the axe to the root of the 
tree at once. The Spirit lays the axe of Christ's truth to the 
root of the tree of unbelief, and at once the man becomes " a 
new creature in Christ Jesus." The principle of love to him 
who died for him, becomes the controlling and impelling motive. 
He works, not for life, but because he has life. Heaven is not 
merely before him, it is within him. 

Remember, then, my reader, that, whatever may be your con- 
victions and your terrors, — whatever may be the number of your 



26 GLAD TIDINGS. 

prayers, tears, and good resolutions, — until you come to Jesus, 
and cast yourself wholly on him, you are resisting the Spirit 
you are in a state of unbelief, and exposed, at any moment, to 
be called into the presence of that God, who has pronounced 
such a fearful sentence against this sin. 

" Dwell, Spirit, in our hearts, 

Our minds from bondage free ; 
Then shall we know, and praise, and love 

The Father, Son, and Thee." 



CHAPTER V. 



SAVING FAITH. 



Faith in Jesus is essential to eternal life. There are many 
important truths in the Bible that a man can be saved without 
knowing. He may get to heaven without being a Presbyterian, 
a Methodist, or a Baptist, but heaven's gates will be forever 
barred against him, if he dies without faith in Jesus. This is 
not a way of being saved, it is the way. All that makes heaven 
happy, all that makes hell miserable, depends on our reception 
or rejection of this truth. 

A man may say he will have nothing to do with this truth, 
but it will have something to do with him. He may assume the 
position of a proud neutrality, but Jesus declares such neutrality 
impossible. "He that is not with me is against me." The 
death of Jesus throws the soul of man, in spite of himself, up- 
on a new probation. It is his only hope, his only way of escape 
from the ruin in which he is involved. The Gospel meets him 
as he lands upon the shores of time, and it must prove to him 
" the Saviour of life or of death." It will leave him amid the 
unsullied brightness of heaven, or amid the hopeless misery of 
the lost. 

In the Bible things are made plain just in proportion as they 
are of vital importance. Things deeply mysterious and hard 
be understood, are to be found in that holy Book ; but the plan of 
salvation is not one of them. Indeed, it is so simple and plain, 
that thousands are stumbling to hell over its very simplicity. 
Instead of believing in the death of the Son of God, as a 
ground of justification and eternal life, they are looking for 
some mysterious influence to come down from heaven, opera- 
ting upon them like an electrical shock, and filling them with 
unspeakable rapture. They are waiting for some wonderful light 
to break in upon their dark minds, and some mysterious voice 
to tell them that they are forgiven. 



28 GLAD TIDINGS. 

Now faith in Jesus is, not merely to believe that he is the Son 
of God; that he has died to save sinners; that he has made a 
perfect atonement for the guilty; that he is able and willing to 
save all who come unto him ; and that there is efficiency in his 
blood to cleanse from all sin. A man may believe all this, just 
as the devil believes it all, and yet remain unsaved. It may 
only be the assent of the intellect to perceived truth. The 
mind maybe convinced of the creditability of God's testimony, 
and yet that testimony exert no saving influence on the heart. 

But when a man really comes to Jesus, he casts himself upon 
his merits as a poor, lost, undone sinner; conscious that he can 
do nothing to save himself, or to improve his condition before 
him ; and trusting wholly to his work on the cross for his ac- 
ceptance with the Father. True faith makes a close, personal 
matter of the death of Jesus. It says, " He died not only for 
sinners but for me, the chief of sinners." It says, "In myself 
I am nothing, but Jesus died for my sins ; and through his 
righteousness I know I am accepted." It takes God at his word. 
It sets before its eyes the awful scene on Calvary, the sinking 
head, the gushing blood, the open wounds, the dying words of 
the Son of God ; and it remembers that with that Son and his 
work the Father is well pleased, and through his finished work 
can be "just and yet the justifier of the ungodly." 

The man who thus believes in Jesus, knows he is forgiven; 
not because he has been told it in a dream, nor because it has 
been whispered to his soul by some mysterious voice, nor flashed 
upon his mind by some sudden impression ; but simply because 
God says it. To trust to my own impressions and feelings and 
emotions is sheer fanaticism ; but to trust to the testimony of 
God concerning his Son, is highly rational. It is to be ab-le to 
give a reason of the hope that is in us. And surely there can 
be no firmer foundation upon which an immortal soul can rest 
its hopes than the word of that God who cannot lie. 

Suppose you had offended some dear friend by your bad 
conduct, and that die sense of that friend's displeasure had be- 
come very grievous to you — a burden you could no longer 
bear. At. last you go to that friend, confess your fault and ask 



SAVING FAITH. 29 

his forgiveness ; and he says > "I freely forgive you." In this 
case, how could you know you were really forgiven ? How 
could you have an assurance that he was no longer displeased 
with you ? Would it be by waiting for some inward impression, 
or some outward voice or some startling light ? No : it would 
be by simply believing your friend's word. 

So it is with faith in Jesus : it rests entirely upon the merits 
of Christ's precious blood, and knows that pardon has been be- 
stowed, because God has said, "He that believeth shall be 
saved." No angel has come from heaven to tell him that his 
sins have been blotted out, and that his name is now entered 
in the Lamb's book of life ; but he rests upon a testimony better 
than that of all the angels in heaven, even the testimony of the 
"Faithful true Witness." "He that hath received his testi- 
mony hath set to his seal that God is true." We know what it 
is to put our name and seal to a written document. It is to 
ratify it, and declare our determination to abide by its contents. 
So faith rests sweetly upon the work of Christ and upon the 
word of God, and knows that there is to be found peace and as- 
surance forever. 

The great mistake that many make when inquiring after sal- 
vation, is, to refuse to come as they are to Jesus. They think 
that they must wait for deeper conviction, for more feeling, for 
more love to Christ before they can come to him. Hence they 
ke'ep looking at their own hearts to see if any good feeling is 
springing up there, which might form a ground of encourage- 
ment that they were becoming more fit for going to Christ. 
The Bible says, " Blessed are the people who know the joyful 
sound." That joyful sound comes only from Calvary. It 
comes from the pale lips of Jesus, quivering in death, as he says, 
"It is finished." But the awakened sinner listens at the door 
of his heart, to hear the joyful sound come from there. But 
from there it never will come. There is in that heart no good 
thing, and no voice but that of condemnation will ever come 
from it. 

Take a Scriptural illustration. The children of Israel had 
fiery flying serpents sent among them, the sting of which was 



30 GLAD TIDINGS. 

deadly. The people were dying, on the right hand and on the 
left. God commanded a brazen serpent to be lifted up in sight 
of the perishing, assuring them that whosover looked in faith 
would be instantly cured. Here is a man who has been 
wounded, and is in a dying state. His friends have taken him 
out in sight of the saving object, and urge and entreat him to 
look and be saved. Instead, however, of looking at the brazen 
serpent, he keeps looking at his wound. He keeps telling of 
its painfulness, of the increase of bad symptoms, and bitterly 
bewailing his miserable state. Would his looking at, and talk- 
ing about his malady save hirn? No : he would die under the 
very shadow of the object of salvation; not because there was 
no saving power in it, but because he would not do what God 
commanded, — look at the brazen serpent, instead of at himself 

Dear reader, Jesus says, "Look unto me, and be ye saved." 
But you say, " I cannot go to Jesus with such a hard heart. I 
have too little feeling, and must wait till I can get more con- 
viction of sin." All this arises from the pride of self-righteous- 
ness of your heart. Suppose that you could feel that your heart 
was growing better, that you had more feeling, and that upon 
making this discovery, that you were to begin to rejoice ; what 
would this be but rejoicing in yourself instead of in Christ ? It 
would only be making a Saviour of your feelings, your emo- 
tions, your penitence, instead of the heaven-appointed Saviour. 

And this is one great reason why the religion of many pro- 
fessors of the present day is so fitful and unreliable. They live 
by feeling, and our feelings are as changeable as the veering 
winds. Hence no dependence can be placed in such profes 
sors. They are either in the raptures of excitement or sun 1 
down into the stupor of indifference. When they feel well they 
will do well. 

Their religion is not like the peaceful river, rolling calmly on, 
day after day the same, but it is like the mountain torrent, 
caused by heavy rain that comes foaming madly down, but in 
the dry season, when it is most wanted, is nowhere to be found. 
It is not like the steady light of the sun, brighter and brighter 
to the perfect day ; but it is like the glare of the lightning, 



SAVING FAITH. 3 r 

which, on a dark night, dazzles your eyes with the sudden illu- 
mination of earth and skies, and then leaves you to plod on in 
greater darkness than before. 

True faith trusts in Jesus alone, and as he is " the same yes- 
terday, to-day, and forever," its confidence is not destroyed by 
change of feeling. On that terrible night, when "the angel of 
death spread his wings on the blast," and breathed destruction 
upon the first born in the Egyptian families, the Israelites were 
saved by simply obeying the word of the Lord, and sprinkling 
the door-posts with blood. They did not need to bar or barri- 
cade their doors to keep the destroyer out. It was not neces- 
sary to sit up all night, clasping the first born in their arms, or 
sending up fervent prayers that he might be spared to them. 
No : if they believed the word of the Lord, and did what that 
word required, they could go to bed and sleep calmly and 
sweetly under the protection of blood. 

So with the believer in Jesus ; he is under the protection of 
the precious blood of Christ, and he knows that his soul is safe 
in the keeping of infinite love. If the Israelite's faith in God's 
word, and in the protecting power of the blood, began to fail, 
he would at once be thrown into an agony of fear and doubt ; 
and as the critical hour approached, and as he heard the first 
wild, despairing cry from the home of his neighbor that the de- 
stroyer had visited, he would be apt to resort to all kinds of ex- 
pedients of his own devising, for the protection of the loved one. 
If he had steady faith, however, in God's remedy, no doubt 
would disturb the calm repose of his soul. 

An old writer says, " Faith will be staggered even by loose 
stones in the way if we look manward ; if we look Godward, 
faith will not be staggered with inaccessible mountains stretch- 
ing across and obstructing apparently our onward progress. 
* Go forward,' is the voice from heaven ; and faith obeying, 
finds the mountains before it flat as plains. How strong is 
faith when it comes fresh from the fountain of redeeming 
love !" Another old writer says, " For every one look you give 
at your own evil heart, give fifty at Christ." 

This waiting for joy and peace, and love to spring up in 



3 2 GLAD TIDINGS. 

our hearts before we believe in Jesus, is as unphilosophical as 
it is unscriptural. We cannot produce emotions by trying to 
feel. Suppose I were to say, " I will now begin and feel sorry ;" 
I could not feel sorry by mere trying. But let me fix my mind 
upon some sorrowful subject, — on my mother on her death-bed, 
and her pale and quivering lips, giving me her dying charge ; 
and the emotion of sorrow will spring up without my trying to 
produce it. If I say, " I will now begin and feel joyful," I can- 
not produce that emotion by any direct effort. But let me fix 
my mind upon some joyful fact, and at once my heart will be 
filled with real gladness. 

So let the sinner look to Jesus, as he utters the deep death 
groan that rends his bleeding heart ; and let him believe that 
all this suffering, all this boundless love was for him, and as one 
says, "he must be more or less than a man," if it does not melt 
him down into penitence and love. Hence the Bible tells us 
that " faith worketh by love and purifies the heart." To ex- 
pect good emotions before faith in Jesus, is to expect the effect 
before the cause. 

" Let no sense of guilt prevent you ; 
Nor of fitness fondly dreair : 
All the fitness he requireth 
Is to feel your need of him." 



CHAPTER VI. 

OBSCURING CLOUDS. 

It has been the experience of all who have had the happiness 
to be taught in the school of Christ, that they have had more 
difficulty in unlearning than in learning. The prejudices en- 
gendered by an erroneous religious training ; the opinions of 
men of high standing, and of eminent piety ; the writings of 
great men, with whose fame the world has resounded ; a blind 
attachment to the church of our fathers, however far that 
church may be from the truth ; and a whole bundle of precon- 
ceived notions in regard to religion, which have no foundation 
in the Bible ; — these all stand in our way, as mountain barriers 
to the reception of "the truth as it is in Jesus." 

It is truly melancholy to think of the influence that prejudice 
will exert on the human mind on the subject of all others the 
most important — salvation. It spreads the darkness of mid- 
night over the understanding, twists and distorts all our modes 
of reasoning and thinking, and leaves its own horrid impress 
upon all our conclusions. It leads men to read the Word of 
God, not to discover truth for themselves, but to find some- 
thing to sustain their own favorite theories. These theories are 
often so absurd, that the letting in of a little common sense up- 
on them, would be enough to dispel them, as the mist is dis- 
pelled by the rising glories of the sun. 

It has been truly said, that you cannot reason a man out of a 
thing that he has never been reasoned into ; and the only cure 
for this unhappy state of mind is to come to the Bible as to the 
foundation of truth, saying, " Lord, what I know not teach thou 
me." When the voice of prejudice exclaimed, " Can any good 
thing come out of Nazareth," the happy convert who had just 
found the Saviour himself, and whose soul was glowing with de- 
sire for the salvation of his friend, had too much wisdom to sit 
33 



34 GLAD TIDINGS. 

down and enter into an argument about the matter. Had 1. 
done so he would in all probability have lost his temper, and 
have done more harm than good ; but there was holy power in 
the kind reply, " Come and see." 

There is the greatest difference among men as to the recep- 
tion of gospel truth. Some receive the truth the first time they 
hear it. With the rapidity of lightning, conviction of their lost 
state flashes upon their minds, and at once they go to Jesus for 
pardon. They can tell the day and the very hour when they 
were converted. A large portion of the conversions recorded 
in the New Testament are of this character. 

But with many who are truly the Lord's children, it is quite 
different. The light of the gospel broke upon their minds grad- 
ually as the dawning of the day. They can tell of no sudden 
terrors, no appalling alarms, no powerful convictions, hurrying 
them on to the verge of despair, and shaking their souls over 
the fiery gulf. Said one, " The Lord awoke me as the mother 
awakes her babe — with a kiss." Neither can such persons tell 
much of great raptures and ecstatic joys in their conversion, 
That the truth as it is in Jesus, in its full-orbed grandeur has 
arisen upon their souls, there can be no doubt. That Christ is 
unspeakably precious to their souls they know, and there is no 
hesitation in the tone with which they say, " One thing I know, 
that, whereas I was blind, I now see ;" yet they cannot fix the 
very day when this great change took place. They often write 
bitter things against themselves on this account, and fear that 
they have never been converted at all. But let such remember 
that to be in Christ is the essential thing : the way in which we 
have reached that place of safety is of little moment. 

When the floodgates of heaven were opened, and a wild del- 
uge was about to sweep the globe of its guilty inhabitants, to be 
in the Ark was to be safe, whether the Ark had been reached 
by a few rapid bounds, or by slow and halting steps. So to be 
able to say, " I have found him whom my soul loveth," is of 
vastly more importance than to be able to relate an experience 
full of thrilling alternations of feeling, and with dates as correct 
as the revolutions of the earth. 



OBSCURING CLOUDS. 35 

One great reason why many are kept from accepting salva- 
tion by faith in Jesus is preconceived and erroneous opinions 
as to what religion truly is. They have arranged in their minds 
what they must do, and how they must feel, if they ever become 
Christians. They have marked out a process in their own minds 
t hrough which they suppose they must go, — a process composed 
of weeks or months of gloom and terror of soul, of bitter tears 
and agonizing prayers, followed by a sudden gush of joy ; the 
whole process being as distinctly marked as the various stages 
of an intermittent fever. They think that when all these emo- 
tions have been experienced, God will be changed in his feel- 
ings toward them; that then his anger will be turned away from 
them ; and that, in consideration of the great change that has 
taken place upon them, he will forgive their past offences and 
love them freely. Tell them that all this attempt to change 
God, and to make themselves more acceptable to him by efforts 
of their own, is not only foolishness, but wickedness ; that it is 
repudiating God's plan of saving them, and daring to substitute 
one of their own ; that no change needs to be effected in God, 
he having already so loved them as to give His Son to die for 
them ; that there is now absolutely nothing between them and 
pardon and justification, but to believe in the perfect satisfac- 
tion which Jesus has made to a broken and an insulted law; — tell 
them all this, I say, and you do great violence to the notions 
and feelings that have been made strong by the culture and in- 
dulgence of years. 

The state of mind described is well illustrated by the case of 
Naaman, the Syrian, (see 2 Kings, 5.) This man had a danger- 
ous and loathsome disease, which cast a dark shadow over his 
life. The good news reached his ears that there was a man of 
God in the land of Israel who could cure him ; and he at once 
started upon his journey, surrounded with all that pomp and 
grandeur which his wealth enabled him to command. As he 
draws near to the residence of the man of God, he arranges in 
his own mind the whole method of his cure. He already in 
imagination sees the prophet hastening to meet him, and, mov- 
ing his hand over the diseased place, lift up his eyes to heaven 



36 GLAD TIDINGS. 

and invoke the Almighty aid, when suddenly his whole frame 
thrills under the consciousness of a perfect cure. 

This was Naaman's plan, but it was not God's. The simple 
message is sent to him, " Go and wash in Jordan seven times, 
and thou shalt be clean." What a severe blow to the man's 
preconceived notions ! The scowl of displeasure is on his brow, 
and indignation is in his heart, because God will not carry out 
his prepared programme. God's way of cure was too simple a 
way, and too humbling to his pride. But at last, through the 
persuasions of love, he went and did what the Lord commanded ; 
and at once he was made ^hole. 

So, my dear reader, cast away your own notions and preju- 
dices ; cast from you with a noble scorn the self-righteous pride 
that would lead you to question the wisdom of God's way of 
saving you ; and this hour salvation shall come to thy heart. 

See that poor diseased woman, in the days of our Lord, press- 
ing her way through the crowd, that she may toadi the hem of 
his garment. See how pale, and weak, and helpless she is, in 
herself. The crowd, surging and swaying to and fro, sometimes 
carry her far from the object of her hope. But she does not 
give up. She does not say, " What can such a poor, weak invalid 
as I am, do ?" She does not sit down and philosophize about 
the likelihood of a mere touch of the hem of the Lord's gar- 
ment doing her any good. She presses her way forward, and 
at last her trembling hand just touches his garment ; and at 
once her bent and shriveled form expands into health and vigor. 
Our Lord instantly looked round, and inquired who had 
touched him. There were many crowding and pressing upon 
him, but he knew that one believing soul, in particular, had 
touched him with the hand of faith. He felt that healing power 
had gone forth from him to some believing heart. 

Reader, that blessed Saviour is near you while you are read- 
ing these lines. You need not ascend to the heights to bring 
him down, nor descend into the depths to bring him up ; you 
need not go to the uttermost ends of the earth in pursuit of him ; 
you need not wait to find him at protracted meetings, or peni- 
tent seats, though many h,ave found him there. He is nigh you 



OBSCURING CLOUDS 37 

this moment, yea, in your heart, if you but believe his word. 
There is but the vail of unbelief between you and him this mo- 
ment, and let that be torn away, and the peace of heaven will 
pervade your heart as you cry, "My Lord, and my God !' 

It not unfrequently happens, that, after the plan of salvation 
ha^ been presented in the plainest way, we are met by the as- 
sertion, "I cannot believe." Now, this is an assertion which 
plainly contradicts your Maker to his face. The Lord who 
made you must know what you can and what you cannot do ; 
and the very fact that he commands you to believe, and threat- 
ens you with eternal punishment for not believing, is the highest 
evidence that you can do it. 

Jesus says, " Ye will not come unto me, that ye might have 
life ;" and you have the boldness to say to that Saviour, "I can- 
not come unto thee." Suppose, for example, that a man has 
insulted his best friend, and, when urged to go and confess his 
fault, and ask his friend's forgiveness, he says, " I cannot do it." 
What does he mean by that " cannot?" Does he mean that his 
limbs have become paralyzed, so that he cannot go to his friend's 
house ? No. Does he mean that he has lost the power of 
speech, so that he cannot ask the injured man's forgiveness? 
No. The meaning of his " cannot," is, that he has such an ob- 
stinate, bad temper that he will not do it. The perverse pride 
of his heart is such, that he will not do what the voice of God 
above him and the voice of conscience within him, alike de- 
clare to be his imperative duty. 

It is so with the sinner. He is going about with a great deal 
of zeal to establish for himself a righteousness, but he will not 
submit himself to the righteousness of Christ. He thinks him- 
self very humble, very broken-hearted and contrite ; he declares 
his willingness to do any thing required of him. Ask him- to 
stand up in public meeting and express his desire for the pray- 
ers of God's people, and he will promptly do it. Ask him to 
attend inquiry meeting, and he will do that. Ask him to go 
home and pray and read his Bible, and his compliance is 
prompt. But there is one thing he will not do : He will not do 
the very fust thing that his God requires of him ; that is, to be- 



3^ GLAD TIDINGS. 

lieve in Jesus. He says he has repented of sin, and declaim, 
readiness to give up every sin ; but the very first sin the Spirit 
points out he refuses to abandon ; that is, the sin of unbelief. 

He is like a man who has a broken limb. The physician is 
called in, and the man professes to be willing that his medical 
attendant should handle the limb in whatever way may be nec- 
essary. The hand of skill passes along the limb, pressing here 
and there, till at last it rests upon the injured part, when the pa- 
tient starts, and exclaims, " Ah, Doctor, you must not touch 
there !" " Yes, but," says the doctor, " that is. the very place to 
be touched, and if you will not let me touch that, there is no use 
of my staying here." 

So, sinner, the Spirit of God pours a whole flood of light on 
the sin of unbelief, and points that out as the murderer of your 
soul ; and you not only refuse to give it up, but speak as if you 
could not give it up, and as if your God had laid you under the 
absolute necessity of calling him a liar! Oh ! do you not see 
that there is an unfathomed depth of pride in your heart, that is 
keeping you from Jesus ? If you are willing to be saved, the 
Saviour is willing, and what, then, is to hinder the lost from 
being found? No more precious blood was shed for John, or 
for Peter, or for Paul, than has been shed for you ; and if ever 
you are saved at all, you must be saved as they were — by the 
application of that blood to your own soul by faith. There is 
no reason on God's part why you should not this moment be 
saved. Any barriers that remain are of your own putting up, 
and keeping up. Throw open the door of your heart, and in- 
vite the blessed Lord to come in. 

** Ye ransomed of Jesus, 
Come sing of his love, 
He stooped down to raise us 
To mansions above : 
Jehovah on him our transgressions did lay, 
And he bore the huge burden, and bore it away." 



CHAPTER VII. 



MIGHTY TO SAVE. 



Souls fleeing from the wrath to come often need strong con- 
solation. It has been observed that Satan will do what he can 
to keep a man from becoming a Christian at all ; but, if he can- 
not succeed in this, he will try, by doubts and fears, to make 
him as ?niserable a Christian as possible. And so this enemy of 
souls tries first to lull souls asleep, in a presumptuous security. 
By false representations of the general mercy of God, by per- 
verted views of the nature of sin, and by preaching from the old, 
popular, and pleasing text, " Thou shalt not surely die," he will 
try to keep all thoughts of coming wrath from disturbing your 
soul. 

But, if in this he cannot succeed, if no species of hellish logic 
can keep the soul from concern about its state before God, then 
the " fathertof lies " will try to persuade the sinner that there is 
no salvation for him. Hence you will see the same man, in the 
course of a few hours, rush from the extreme of presumption to 
that of despair. Formerly he could not be made to fear, now 
he cannot be made to hope. To such I would especially ad- 
dress myself in the following remarks. 

Such persons are just as much in the service of the devil in 
their present state of mind as they ever were. They may go to 
the house of God, may attend inquiry meeting, may converse 
with religious people freely, and appear to be more religious 
than they ever were before ; but they are still believing Satan's 
lie, in opposition to God's truth : they are intrenched in unbe- 
lief, under the influence of whicfe, they refuse to trust the im- 
perishable word of the God of truth, and cast back the precious 
promises in the face of the Eternal. 

There are two great truths which stand out on the pages of 
the Bible so plain that he that runneth may read them. The 

39 



4° GLAD TIDINGS. 

one is, that if any sinner is ever saved, God's will be all the glory; 
the other is, that if any sinner is ever lost, the sinner's will be 
all the blame. These two truths God has joined together, and 
let no man dare to put them asunder. We may talk about 
God's sovereignty, and man's free agency, about liberty and ne- 
cessity, until both ourselves and our hearers become lost in the 
thick metaphysical fog of our own raising ; but, thank God, 
when we emerge from out of the thick darkness of our own 
creating, we see these two truths in the Word of Life, shining out 
gloriously, — lights in a dark place, to which we do well that we 
take heed. 

God has been at infinite pains to convince the sinner that he 
has no pleasure in his death, and casts the whole responsibility 
of his soul's eternal state upon himself. As if to set this mat- 
ter forever at rest, and forever to shut the mouth of unbelief, 
the Eternal God, in infinite condescension, comes before the as- 
sembled world of his own guilty creatures, and swears by his 
own Being, not only that he has no pleasure in the death of a 
sinner, but that he has a contrary pleasure — a pleasure in their 
conversion. Now, it is said that among men, "an oath of con- 
firmation is an end of all strife ;" but it seems that between the 
sinner and God it is not the end of all strife ; but that the sin- 
tier, after refusing to believe the word of God, will go on to 
doubt his very oath! O, how deep and damning is the sin of 
unbelief! 

The doctrine that God honestly and earnestly desires the 
salvation of the sinner is everywhere taught in the Bible, and in 
the strongest terms. 2 Tim. 2 : 4 — " For this is good and ac- 
ceptable in the sight of God our Saviour ; who will have all 
men to be saved, and to come to a knowledge of the truth." 2 
Peter, 3 : 9 — " Not willing that any should perish, but that all 
should come to repentance." Many other passages might be 
quoted to show how earnestly God longs for the salvation of 
the greatest sinner, and that when the sinner perishes, it is not 
because there is no love for him in the heart of God, not be- 
cause the blood of Jesus has not been shed for him, not because 
that blood, so efficacious to save others, has no power to save 



MIGHTY TO SAVE. 4I 

him ; but simply because he persistently refuses to be saved by 
God's appointed method, faith in the death and righteousness 
of the Lord Jesus. 

If God is a holy God, as is universally acknowledged, then 
he must desire to see all holy ; and, as an evidence of this, when 
a little of God's own Spirit takes possession of any man, from 
that moment he begins intensely to long and pray for the salva- 
tion of all. Now, if a very little of God's Spirit in the heart of 
a Christian makes him desire the salvation of all men, does the 
Spirit itself only desire the salvation of a few ? Ask any good 
man, when the spirit of prayer is imparted to him, how many 
perishing sinners he desires to be saved, and he will at once 
exclaim, " O that all my Saviour knew." 

Now, that desire did not come naturally from himself, neither 
did it come from the prince of darkness, but is in his possession 
because he has been made "partaker of the Divine nature," be- 
cause the mind that was in Christ is in him. In short, the fer- 
vent longing of the believer for the salvation of the world, 
which shows itself in tears, in prayers, and in untiring efforts, is 
but the echo of that voice that comes from the eternal throne, 
" As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of 
him that dieth, but rather that he would turn unto me and 
live." 

As an unanswerable proof that these were God's feelings to- 
ward a perishing world, when he gave his beloved Son, he sent 
u company of holy angels to announce the errand on which he 
came, not as a Saviour for a few, but for all. " Fear not ; for, 
behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to 
all people." Now, if Jesus did not die for all, if salvation is not 
free to all, the Gospel could not be glad tidings to any of us. 

Suppose that a number of persons are confined in prison un- 
der sentence of death. One night the door of their cell is 
thrown open, and a messenger from the Governor enters, say- 
ing, " Cheer up, my friends, I have good news for you." They 
would all expect to hear something that would make them 
happy. Every eye is fixed upon the face of the messenger, and 
the interest is intense, when he breaks the deep silence once 



42 GLAD TIDINGS. 

more by saying, " There is pardon and deliverance for some of 
you." This would not really be good news to any of them; it 
would not really make any of them happy ; but, as they could 
not know who the favored ones were, would cast them back in- 
to greater suspense and anxiety than before. But if a free par- 
don is offered to all without exception, it can truly be called 
good news whether it is received or not. Some might be too 
proud to accept of it, and others might think they could save 
themselves in some other way than by accepting an offer of free 
grace: nevertheless, the message itself was glad tidings, and was 
for all the condemned. 

Our adorable Redeemer must have known what was the na- 
ture of his mission, and whether the work that he undertook 
was for the whole race, or only for a part. And, accordingly, 
his account of it is, " God so loved the world, that he gave his 
onlv begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him might not 
perish, but have everlasting life." Sinner, there are two words 
here that take you in, however great may have been your sins. 
God loved the world: you are one of the wor]d; therefore, God 
so loved you as to give his son to die for you. The word " whoso- 
ever," also includes you. It includes the whole world who will 
believe in him whose blood cleanseth from all sin. 

Indeed, had the death of our Lord Jesus not been for all, and 
had his love not gone out equally to all, it could not be s^d of 
him that he kept the law, that he magnified the law, and made 
it honorable. The law required him not only to love God with 
all his soul, but his neighbor as himself. In taking upon him our 
nature he became the neighbor of every man, according to his 
own definition of neighbor, as given in the parable of the good 
Samaritan. Had his love then been only a partial love, had it 
taken in only one portion of the race, and rejected the other, 
he would not have been a perfect Saviour. 

But, as facts sometimes strike the mind more forcibly than 
arguments, permit me to turn the reader's attention to a few 
facts, which show the Lord Jesus as mighty to save the vilest of 
transgressors. One day the Lord was on a visit to Capernaum, 
and was invited to dinner at the house of a Pharisee. While 



MIGHTY TO SAVE. .~ 

he sat at table, a woman, whose past life had been stained by- 
sins of deepest dye, came into the room wnere he was. She 
had doubtless been listening to his soul-searching preaching, 
which had fastened conviction of her lost condition upon her, 
and made the whole of her past life pass in terrible review be- 
fore her affrighted spirit. She began to wash our Lord's feet 
with her tears of penitence, and to wipe them with her hair; and, 
to show the fullness of her grateful heart, regardless of expense, 
she began to anoint him with a very costly oil. 

The Pharisee was dreadfully shocked at such things being 
allowed in his house, and his proud heart swelled with indigna- 
tion as he said within himself, " This man, if he were a prophet^ 
would have known what manner of woman this is, for she is a 
sinner." Poor, spiritually-blind mortal ! Well did the blessed 
Redeemer know who she was, and all about her past life ; but he 
also knew the deep repentance and the strong faith which filled 
her heart, and, turning to her, after administering a keen rebuke 
to the Pharisee, he said, "Thy faith hath saved thee." 

But we come to a still more notable case. Jesus is on the 
cross in the midst of mortal agonies. The hour of darkness 
now has come, and the curse due to guilty sinners is fallen up- 
on his holy head. Around him a perfect tempest of passion is 
raging, and the very creatures for whose guilt he is suffering 
are blaspheming him with a thousand tongues. And, worse than 
all the pains that racked his body, worse than the ravings of 
blasphemy at the foot of the cross, the light of his Father's, 
smiles, in which he had from all eternity rejoiced, is now with- 
drawn, and the dismal gloom which falls upon the earth, is but 
a faint emblem of the darkness that covered his holy mind, as 
he exclaimed, " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me !"" 

Yet, even in that terrible hour, he did not forget to labor for 
the souls of the perishing. To his two fellow sufferers he doubt- 
less preached the doctrines of the Kingdom, and one of them 
receives the truth and is saved. He was suffering punishment as a. 
thief, as one who had violated the laws both of God and man ; 
but his past sins formed no barrier to Christ receiving hira. He 
had no good works to present, on the ground of which he could 



44 GLAD TIDINGS. 

claim acceptance with God, and, blessed be God, they were not 
needed ! He found the blood of Jesus a sufficient plea for his 
justification, and his righteousness an ample covering for his 
naked soul. 

He was a bad man, who had been so hardened in sin that 
even his fellow-men could endure him no longer, but were de- 
termined to rid the earth of his vile presence, by pushing him 
before the bar of God ; but in the last hour of his wasted life 
he believed in Jesus, and that moment his past guilt was all 
forgiven, and the promise of eternal life, from the lips of Jesus, 
fell upon his dying ear. O sinner, why stay away one hour 
longer from such a Saviour, who will in no wise cast out any 
that come unto him ? 

We have thus seen what were the terms upon which Jesus re- 
ceived sinners in the days of his flesh; but he is no longer on 
earth, and the question occurs, is he the same still ? We are so 
liable to change, ourselves, and are surrounded with so many 
changes, that we are apt to suspect some change in the Friend 
of sinners. But the word of God assures us that He is " the 
same yesterday, to-day, and forever ;" and, as a proof of it, we 
see him receiving the chief of sinners after his glorious ascension. 

Shortly after he went to his throne in glory, a young man of 
finished education, and of splendid powers of mind, commenced 
a course of opposition to the Lord's cause. Possessed of great 
energy of character, and of an impetuous spirit, that never did 
anything by halves, he persecuted to death the followers of Je- 
sus, and, to use his own words, was " exceeding mad against 
them." As he went on in his career of blasphemy and of l^ood, 
the eye of the Saviour looked down upon him, a witness of all 
the dark passions that filled his heart. 

And did that eye flash with the fires of wrath ? Did a red 
thunderbolt leap from the hands of the Lord, to dash this rebel 
wretch to pieces ? No : the eye that once swam in tears for 
him, still pitied him ; the hand that was once nailed to the cross 
for him, was kindly stretched out to pluck him from destruction; 
his blasphemies were turned into prayers; his hatred of Christ 
and his people, into love; and, thirty years after, upon a calm 



MIGHTY TO SAVE. 45 

review of the whole scene on the road to Damascus, he says, 
11 This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that 
Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am 
chief y 

Reader, will you now believe ? I have no means of knowing 
how great a sinner you have been ; but, in the name of Jesus, I 
bid you welcome to a Saviour "mighty to save." The terms of 
Solomon's pardon to Adonijah were, "If he will show himself 
worthy." But Christ's offer of pardon is burdened with no such 
if. He receives the unworthy who believe in him, and through 
his worthiness makes them worthy. His name is Jesus because 
he saves from sin. An old writer says — "There is majesty in 
the name, God. There is independent being in the name, Jeho- 
vah. There is unction in the name, Christ. There is friendship 
in the word, Immanuel. There is help in the name, Advocate. 
But there is salvation only in the name, Jesus." 



CHAPTER VIII. 



PEACE WITH GOD. 



The most valuable blessing that man can enjoy on earth is 
peace with God. When the blessed Redeemer was about to 
bid his disciples farewell, and they stood around him in speech- 
less sorrow, this was the gift which he singled out, above all 
others, to bestow upon them as his parting legacy. He was Lord 
of all, and had the whole universe out of which to choose a gift 
for them in that hour of parting tenderness ; and the gift which 
he fixed upon as the most precious to them in their hour of 
need, was, peace with God. "Peace I leave with you, my peace 
I give unto you : not as the world giveth give I unto you." 

Observe, the Savioui does not say that he will give the be- 
liever a peace. The world can do that The false hope, that 
maketh ashamed, can do that But he promised to give his 
own peace — the same untroubled calm that dwelt in his own 
bosom from all eternity. Before you could make an animal 
happy with man's happiness, you would have to give it man's 
nature; and before the soul can be made happy with God's 
peace, it must first be made a partaker of God's nature. This 
is done when the soul believes in Jesus, and casts itself unre- 
servedly upon his promises. " Whereby are given unto us ex- 
ceeding great and precious promises; that by these we might be 
partakers of the divine nature." Man lost his happiness when 
he lost the image of God upon his soul ; and he can never be 
happy till that image is restored. No outward surrounding can 
make him happy, while he has no peace with God. 

Why was Adam unhappy after he became a sinner? He was 
still in paradise, with all its scenes of surpassing loveliness. 
The heavens were as bright above him, and the earth as beauti- 
ful around him as before ; and yet, he is now seen trembling 
with guilty terror, and seeking to hide himself from the pres- 



PEACE WITH GOD. tf 

ence of his God. The reason is that sin has entered his soul, 
and, instead of peace, there is misery and internal discord. 
"There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." 

You might place a sinner in a palace, and ransack the four 
quarters of the globe, to find objects to administer to his pleas- 
ures. The voices of applauding thousands might shout his 
praise. A crowd of flatterers might bow at his nod ; but sin 
reigning in his heart would convert all into the misery of hell. 
It would make his sweetest music harsh and discordant as the 
groans of the damned. It would make his soul turbulent as the 
heavings of the burning lake, and send out from his heart the 
cry, " All is vanity and vexation of Spirit." 

Almost every good thing in this world has its counterfeit, and 
so it is with peace with God. The prophet Jeremiah tells of some 
in his day who cried, "peace, peace, when there was no peace." 
The prophet was bitterly weeping over their lost condition, but 
they had not one tear to shed for themselves. He saw all the 
extent of their tremendous peril, but no fear disturbed their 
deadly stupor. Such persons fondly suppose that all is right 
with them, while all is wrong. They are spiritual bankrupts, 
while they think themselves "rich and increased in goods." 

Perhaps there was a time when deep conviction of sin shook 
their souls to their very centre. The terrors of the Lord, and 
the powers of the world to come, made them afraid. Their 
feelings were excited to the highest pitch of human endurance. 
They longed for peace and comfort to come to them from some 
quarter. Now, in the very nature of things, the sinner will not 
remain long in this state. If he does not go at once to Jesus, 
and become possessor of true peace, he will go back into a cal- 
lous indifference on the subject of religion, or else settle down 
upon some false hope. 

It is a law of all nature that whatever is violent cannot be 
lasting. When we see a very violent storm, we know that it 
will not last long. The violent disease soon exhausts itself or 
the patient. The grief that is furious and clamorous over the 
grave of a friend, seldom lasts long. So, when the mind is 
deeply moved to sorrow and alarm on the subject of religion, 



48 GLAD TIDINGS. 

it is according to the philosophy of mind that there will be a 
reaction, that a calm will ensue ; and the great danger is, un- 
less the mind is faithfully dealt with, that this calm will be mis- 
taken for the peace of God. 

That this is the case with thousands of professing Christians, 
is evident from the fact that they can give no scriptural and in- 
telligent reason for the hope that is in them. That they felt 
very bad, and that after a time they felt better, is about the sum 
total of their religious experience. As to how a just and holy 
God can forgive them, without dishonoring his law, and com- 
promising his truth, they can give you no scriptural account ; 
and if they attempt to direct an anxious sinner as to what he 
shall do to be saved, they at once exhibit the spectacle of " the 
blind leading the blind." 

Their religion being founded upon feeling, not pri7iciple, soon 
settles down into a heartless form ; and should the truth of God, 
at any time, startle their slumbering souls into alarm that all is 
not right with them, they immediately find comfort by falling 
back on their religious experience, living in the remote past. 
There is no class of a minister's hearers so hard to be reached 
by divine truth, as those who have thus pillowed their head 
upon a false peace. He may preach the most faithful and 
powerful discourses, leaping warm from a heart filled with in- 
tense solicitude for the perishing. He may expose the danger 
of self-deceivers with a clearness and fidelity that will some- 
times alarm the true saints of God ; for, as an old writer says : 
" It is hard to drive the dogs out without making the children 
cry ;" but the deluded soul clutches with a tighter grasp the 
huge falsehood with which it is descending to perdition. 

O I Dear Reader, look well to the foundation of your peace 
If you make a mistake in your daily business, it may be cor- 
rected and no great harm done. If, in the erection of a house, 
the construction of a machine, or the solving of a difficult prob- 
lem, you make a mistake, the ground may be gone over again, 
and all be made right ; but if you die wrong, it is an eternal 
mistake ! There is no coming back from the land of despair, 
to correct mistakes made with reference to salvation: but with 



PEACE WITH GOD. 49 

the day of grace ended, every rill of mercy dried up, the light 
of hope quenched in darkness, and insulted justice inflicting 
upon the soul its avenging strokes, eternity will be filled up 
with the doleful lamentation, "The harvest is past, the summer 
is ended, and I am not saved." 

This peace is the only real support amid the trials and sor- 
rows of life. Earth has no ill for which Jesus has not a cure. 
The heart knoweth its own bitterness, arid we are sometimes 
called to pass through afflictions in which the tenderest human 
sympathy can do us no good. Human comforters may admi- 
nister temporary relief, like a stupefying opiate given to the 
pain-racked sufferer, but Jesus can give a peace lasting as 
eternity. 

Many are the remedies proposed for the sorrows of life. 
Here is one who, under the deep afflictions of his lot, frets, and 
murmurs, and complains, and makes himself and all around 
him miserable, by pouring out his unavailable complaints. 
Here is another, who sits down under his trials with a hard- 
ened indifference, submitting to the lashes of a something that 
he calls fate, and sullenly declaring that he must bear what he 
cannot help. Of such ways of finding comfort, it may be said, 
as of Job's friends, " Miserable comforters are ye all." 

When trouble comes to the believer, he has far different com- 
fort. He may be placed in the most trying circumstances, and 
every door of outward enjoyment may be shut, but then it is 
that Jesus comes into his soul, and, in his own mild accents of 
love, says, " Peace be unto you." See Paul and Silas in yonder 
gloomy prison. Their persecutors have scourged them till 
blood trickles down ^.on the floor of their cell; their feet are 
made fast in the stocks ; and, locked up there in darkness and 
gloom, we might suppose that their state of mind would be one 
of unmingled. misery. But in their hearts the imperishable 
principle of peace with God reigned, and so happy were they, 
that they broke oat into a song of such gushing gladness, that 
the old prison walls for once reverberated to the very melody 
of heaven. 

The man wno has this peace can meet earthly trials, not only 



50 GLAD TIDINGS. 

calm and undaunted, bat rejoicing in all the appointments of 
his Heavenly Father. A shower of afflictions may fall upon 
him, like the stones upon the head of the dying Stephen ; yet 
like him he can see the heavens opened and the face of his 
Lord beaming with a smile of approval. Like the three He- 
brews, he may be cast into the fiery furnace; but like them One 
walks with him there like to the Son of God. Like Peter, 
Satan may desire to have him, that he may sift him as wheat ; 
but like him he can hear his Lord say, " I have prayed for you 
that your faith fail not." His frail bark may be launched upon 
a turbulent sea of troubles ; but across the billows he sees Jesus 
coming to comfort him in the dark night of his sorrow ; and 
"with Christ in the vessel, he smiles at the storm." 

Dear reader, to convince you that this is not mere empty 
theory, or a mere flourish of rhetoric, come along with me in 
one of my pastoral visits. We will enter this humble dwelling; 
and, as we enter the sick room, tread softly for you are upon 
holy ground. Angels are there, and the Lord of angels is there. 
Upon the bed lies a kind Christian wife and mother, about to 
close her eyes upon earthly objects. 

By the bed-side stands her husband in deepest distress, Ad- 
ding her farewell as she sinks down into the cold river of death. 
There, too, are the little children, soon to be motherless, listen- 
ing to her parting counsels, and imprinting their last kiss upon 
those cold lips that first taught them to say, " Our Father who 
art in heaven." She presses her babe to that loving heart, al- 
ready struck with the criill of death, and, lifting up her eyes to 
heaven, offers for it her last prayer. And then, with a counte- 
nance beaming with peace, she says, " My blessed Saviour has 
come : " I hear him say, ' I have loved thee with an everlasting 
love; I have engraven thy name upon the palms of my hands.' " 
She speaks to her weeping friends of a bright world where part- 
ing is unknown, where death never shows his ghastly visage, 
and where all that is pure becomes permanent. 

It is thus that peace with God gives complete victory over 
death. John Lambert, who was burned to death for Christ's 
sake, in Smithneld, when his legs were consumed away by the 



PEACE WITH GOD. 5 1 

fire, lifted up his hand, his fingers blazing like torches, and cried 
with his last breath, " None but Christ! None but Christ !" 

That great and good man, Samuel Rutherford, said to some 
ministers, who came to see him, on his death-bed : " Brethren, 
do all for Christ : pray for Christ, preach for Christ, feed ^he 
flock of Christ, visit the sick for Christ, do all for Christ." 

The dying words of John Knox were, " Come, Lord Jesus : 
sweet Jesus, unto thy hands I commend my spirit." 

The biographer of John Elliot, the missionary among the In- 
dians, tells us that, on his death-bed, " He was full of peace, of 
hope, of a calm and full trust in Jesus, that nothing could shake 
yet his humility, like a guardian angel, ever hovered around his 
heart, and kept it in safety." Reader ! prepare to meet thy God. 
Get by faith in Jesus that peace that maketh not ashamed, and 
death to you will be great gain. 

• Is that a death-bed where the Christian lies ? 
Ves, but not his ; 'tis death himself there dies.' 



CHAPTER IX 



THE THIRSTY INVITED. 



" Ho ! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he 
that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat ; yea, come, buy 
wine and milk without money and without price." Dear reader, 
if you were traveling along a public highway, and were to hear 
aloud "Ho!" uttered behind you, there are three questions 
that would naturally occur to your mind. First, who speaks? 
secondly, who is spoken to ? and thirdly, what is spoken about ? 
Now, we are traveling to eternity, and we have listened to the 
solemn call contained in the above text. Let me direct your 
attention to these three questions. 

Who speaks ? It is the great God of heaven and earth who 
thus addresses us. That God who guides the planets in their 
courses, and regulates the wanderings of the flaming comet; 
who sustains all being, from the worm that crawls beneath our 
feet, to the angel who rolls his deathless song through the courts 
of heaven ; whose awful voice is alike heard in the sighing of 
the zephyr, and in the thunder which rolls in terrific majesty 
across the heavens, — condescends to speak to guilty sinners 
like us. O let us listen with profound awe, for his very " for- 
giveness is to be feared." 

When we open the pages of the Bible, or go to the house of 
God, we are apt to feel as if we only heard man speak to us. 
The result is that w r e sit in judgment upon the W T ord, instead 
of permitting the Word to sit in judgment upon us. Had we 
stood on the banks of the Jordan, on the occasion of our 
Lord's baptism, and had we heard the voice of God directly 
addressing us from the heavens, we think that we would have 
.felt it peculiarly solemn. If, while sitting in our own home, we 
were to see a hand start out before us, and write a direct per- 
sonal appeal to us on the wall, we think we could never forget 



THE THTTJSTY TNVTTED. 53 

it. But in reality there is nothing more solemn in God's speak- 
ing to us in an audible voice from heaven, or in God writing a 
message upon the wall, than there is in God writing it in His 
Word, and causing the Divine Spirit to point at our hearts, say- 
ing, " Thou art the man." 

But the fact is that we have got so accustomed to hearing and 
handling the Word of God from our youth, that we fail to real- 
ize that it truly is God speaking to us. This tendency to be- 
come hardened and indifferent under the very abundance of 
our religious privileges, is a sad sign of the deep depravity of 
our hearts. A stranger visiting Niagara Falls, for the first time, 
is thrilled with awe, and trembles at the sound of nature's most 
majestic voice, as " deep calleth unto deep ;" but the people who 
have lived beside the mighty cataract all their days are apt to 
regard it with indifference and scarcely heed the tones of its 
powerful voice. 

So have we seen many an outcast wanderer, who had not be- 
fore entered the house of God for many years, fall down into 
broken-hearted contrition under the first sermon he heard, while 
gospel-hardened sinners sit with utter carelessness under the 
rebukes of the Almighty. Reader, that holy Bible in your 
home is an awful visitor. From week to week, the whole year 
round, it utters God's voice to you. Its presence in your 
household is one of the most solemn events of your life. By it 
you are to be judged on the last day ; and, above the ashes of a 
consumed world, that voice you now little regard will pro- 
nounce your unchangeable doom. 

We come to the next question: Who is spoken to ? God here 
addresses the whole world; and yet he is not speaking to the 
inhabitants of the world collectively, but individually. He is 
speaking to us one by one, as we pass before him, in the words, 
u Ho, every one." There is a beautiful propriety in this, when 
we remember that men are to be judged individually. It was 
so when man first sinned. Adam was first called up and judged; 
then Eve, next, and then Satan. And in the great day of final 
account every man is to receive according to the deeds done in 
his body, and all will find their minutest affairs investigated, as 
if they alone had occupied the undivided attention of the Judge. 



54 GLAD TIDINGS. 

Whenever men get spiritual profit under the preaching of the 
gospel, it is when they are made to feel that the Word is a per- 
sonal appeal to themselves. As long as the sinner can hide 
himself in the multitude, and talk about how the preacher spoke 
to the people, as if it were a matter of no concern to him, the 
Word is rather a savor of death than of life to his soul : but 
when the pulpit becomes to him as a judgment seat ; when his 
long-forgotten sins are all brougltt up in review ; when he is 
made to forget the surrounding multitude in the deep sense 
of his own individual responsibility to God; when he is 
prepared to take the whole guilt of his sins upon himself, and 
thus to justify God and to condemn himself; when he no longer 
wishes to have " smooth things " prophesied to him, but places 
himself under the most searching and faithful ministry he can 
find, opening his heart to the rebukes of the Lord, and saying, 
Search me, and try me, and see what wicked way there is in 
me" — then, and not till then, is the soul in a state to give a 
hearty welcome to Christ's proclamation of love, that love which 
thrills the heart with all the power of a personal appeal : " Unto 
you is the word of this salvation sent." 

God is here speaking to the world as at a distance from Him. 
Do you ask how I know this ? I answer, I know it by the use 
of the word " Ho." We never cry ' Ho !" to one who is stand- 
ing near us, but to those who are distant, and whose attention 
we wish to secure. Now, this distance of the sinner from his 
God is not a local or a geographical one. In that sense he is 
every moment near God. His future Judge " is about his bed, 
and about his path, and spies out all his ways." In company 
or in solitude, when plunging into the mad scenes of dissipation, 
or devoured by the iron tooth of remorse in secret, that eye that 
darts through creation at a glance is fixed upon him. And it is 
this thought that troubles him and dashes many an untasted cup 
of pleasure from his lips. Wretched man ! He cannot even 
flee from himself, much less from his God. The sinner's dis- 
tance from his God is a spiritual one. It is that state of mind 
in which the sinner makes a desperate effort to forget God ; and 
so far succeeds that though surrounded by God, though spared 



THE THIRSTY INVITED. 55 

by His grace, and fed by His Providence, God is not in all his 
thoughts. It is that state of mind in which he can live a prac- 
tical atheist in a world full of God. 

He forms plans of happiness, but God is not in any of them. 
He enters upon projects that will not bear a glance of God's 
holy eye, and nothing makes him more uneasy than any allusion 
to the fact that the Holy One is near. Hence, he speaks a 
great deal of the order of nature, and of the works of nature, 
and of the laws of nature ; and has exalted over the world a 
certain deity called chance. Poor wanderer ! he is living in the 
"far country," self-exiled from all that can make life worth pos- 
sessing, and yet glorying in his shame. 

Reader, God is speaking to you now. This is His acceptable 
time for speaking words to you, by which you may be saved. 
Do not refuse to listen to Him now, nor have the daring hardi- 
hood to bid the Almighty wait your convenience. Now we 
know He waits to be gracious, but to-morrow may be too late 
forever ! At any moment life's pendulum, may cease its vibra- 
tions and stand still ; the lamp of life may nicker and go out, 
and leave you to fill eternity with the bitter lamentation, " The 
harvest is past, the summer is ended, and Lam not saved." 

A late writer, when making an appeal to sinners, uses the fol- 
lowing illustration: — "On a part of the British coast where 
beetling cliffs, from three to five hundred feet in height, overhang 
the ocean, some individuals, during a certain season of the year, 
obtain a solitary livelihood by collecting the eggs of rock-birds, 
and gathering samphire. The way in which they pursue this 
hazardous calling is as follows : The man drives an iron crow- 
bar securely into the ground, about a yard from the edge of the 
precipice. To that crowbar he makes fast a rope, of which he 
then lays hold. He next slides gently over the cliff, and lowers 
himself till he reaches the ledges and crags, where he expects to 
find the object of his pursuit. To gain these places is often a 
difficult task ; and when they fall within the perpendicular, the 
only method of accomplishing it is for the adventurer to swing 
in the air, till, by a dexterous management, he can so balance 
himself as to reach the spot on which he wishes to descend. A 



56 GLAD TIDINGS. 

basket, made for the purpose, and strapped between the shoul- 
ders, contains the fruit of his labor ; and when he has rilled the 
basket, or failed in the attempt, he ascends, hand over hand, to 
the summit. 

On one occasion, a man who was thus employed, in gaining 
a narrow ledge of rock, which was overhung by a higher portion 
of the cliff, secured his footing, but let go the rope. He at once 
perceived his peril. No one could come to his rescue, or even 
hear his cries. The fearful alternative immediately flashed on 
his mind — it was, being starved to death, or dashed to pieces 
four hundred feet below f On turning round, he saw the rope 
he had quitted, but it was far away. As it swung backward 
and forward, its long vibrations testified the mighty efforts by 
which he had reached the deplorable predicament in which he 
stood. He looked at the rope in agony. He had gazed but a 
little while, when he noticed that every movement was shorter 
than the one preceding, so that each time it came the nearest, 
as it was gradually subsiding to a point of rest, it was a little 
farther off than it had been the time before. He briefly rea- 
soned thus : — That rope is my only chance of life ; in a little 
while it will be forever beyond my reach ; it is nearer now than 
it will ever be again ; I can but die — here goes ! So saying, he 
sprang from the cliff, as the rope was next approaching, caught 
it in his grasp, and went home rejoicing." 

In the case of this man every moment's delay was making his 
case more hopeless. As he gazed upon that rope, he knew it 
was nearer to him now than it ever would be again. He there- 
fore took the only wise course, and at once leaped for the rope. 
Dear reader, you stand on the brink of the eternal world, and 
if out of Christ, your peril is extreme. Above you, a God whose 
law you have broken, whose Son you have insulted, and whose 
dread curse you have braved. Beneath you the pit of woe 
opens to receive your soul, made, by your rejection of Christ, 
ripe for devouring vengeance. Behind you is nothing but a 
moral waste, strewed all over with the wreck 0/ abused privi- 
leges, neglected Sabbaths, despised prayers, and counsels of 
pious parents and heaven-sent ministers, and dark traces of 



THE THIRSTY INVITED. 57 

your sins. There is not a moment to be lost. The Lord Jesus 
lets down within your reach the rope of salvation. The voice 
of your God in heaven is heard urging you to grasp it. Now, 
O now, or it may be forever too late ! Angels pause on the 
wing of love to see what you will do [ all heaven is interested in 
the result ; all hell is moved for your destruction. This moment, 
while your eye is upon these lines, cast yourself in simple trust 
upon the merits of that Saviour, "who saves to the very utter- 
most all that come unto God through him." 

We come now to the third question: What is spoken about? 
The whole world is invited to come and accept of salvation, un- 
der the figure of water. This is a figure which is very frequent- 
ly used in the Scriptures, and with a beautiful propriety. Jesus 
stood, on the great day of the Feast, and cried, " If any man 
thirst let him come unto me and drink." Water is essential to 
our existence, and is therefore appropriately used as an emblem 
of the salvation that is in Christ. Let our fountains of water 
fail for even a few days ; let God withold for a little time the 
showers that water the earth, — and one wild cry of misery would 
go up from the earth's population. Let God continue to cut 
off our supplies of water, and soon our world would become one 
vast sepulchre. 

So, salvation through the death of Jesus is absolutely essen- 
tial to the life of the soul. There are many who think that hu- 
man nature is not so utterly depraved but that it can restore it- 
self; that there is a little spark of holiness left, — a little regen- 
erating principle that only requires to be nurtured and cher- 
ished, to make man all that his God can reasonably require him 
to be. This development theory — this fancy of man having a 
little spiritual capital to start with, which, by trading upon it in- 
dustriously, will make him rich towards God — is one which is 
exceedingly popular in the present day. It builds up the pride 
of human nature, and allows man to glory in self. 

But it is as false as it is dangerous. The Lord says, " Unless 
ye eat my flesh and drink my blood, ye have no life in you.'* 
He does not say that men have a little life, which, by good 
management on their part, may be brought to great strength and 



5 8 GLAD TIDINGS. 

vigor. No ; but he tells us that " he who believeth on the Son 
hath everlasting life , and he who believeth not the Son shall 
not see life; but the wrath of God abideth upon him." With- 
out Christ, the description that God gives of the human soul is, 
''''dead in trespasses and sins;" and, unless quickened by the 
grace of God, it must be forever bound in the chains of the sec- 
ond death. 

Another reason why water may be used as a figure for salva- 
tion, is, its cleansing properties. It is the cleansing element which 
we use in our homes and upon our persons. That man's soul 
is defiled by sin, is not only a doctrine of revelation, but one of 
universal experience. God's holy eye looked down upon our 
world, and the verdict which He gave as to the state of our race 
was, " they are altogether become corrupt." For this universal 
corruption, a remedy has been provided in the blood of Jesus, 
" which cleanseth from all sin." But many, in the pride of 
their hearts, turn away from God's remedy, and propose plans 
of their own devising. Some propose education and the general 
diffusion of knowledge, as the remedy for the sins of the world. 

Now, I would not say one word against education. Popular 
ignoranee is more to be dreaded than the earthquake, the pes- 
tilence, or the famine. The ignorant man, though living amid 
the refinements of civilization, is still but half a savage. But 
rest assured that no amount of education can ever purify the 
heart of man. The first of scholars has often been the first of 
villains ; and men whose splendid intellectual powers have ex- 
cited the admiration of the world, have been men of gigantic 
wickedness. The world is not so badly off for talent as it is for 
moral purity. The chemist may be able to analyze the intoxi- 
cating cup, and tell of its deadly properties ; and the physician 
may be able to tell of its bad effects upon the human system ; 
and yet both of them may be abandoned drunkards. The soul 
of man needs not only to k7iow what is right, but to love what is 
right. This, nothing but the salvation of Christ can impart. It 
alone can bring with it a double blessing — knowledge in the 
head, and love in the heart. As God is both light and love, so 
the Gospel, which comes from Him, enlightens while it purifies. 



THE THIRSTY INVITED. 59 

But water may be used as a figure of Christ's salvation, from 
its freeness. How free to the whole race, and how abundant 
the supply ! As it rolls past us in the beautiful river, swells and 
undulates in the magnificent lake, or leaps and dashes in the 
mountain torrent, how free it is to all ! The pure gift of God, 
it comes to us "without money and without price." So with 
the salvation that is in the Saviour. As that river of salvation 
rolls past us, the Lord's own proclamation is, " Whosoever will 
let him take of the water of life freely.' Young and old, rich 
and poor, the learned and the ignorant the bond and the free ; 
all are pressed and plied by the urgency of inviting love, to 
come. Oh sinner ! if you only knew the gift of God, and who 
is speaking to you, you would this moment begin to ask of Him 
this living water. Wait not to bring a price in your hand, to 
purchase what is offered you as a gift, but come in the depth of 
your soul-poverty, and be enriched with imperishable treasure. 

That was an impressive scene, when God commanded Moses 
to strike the rock in the wilderness, and streams of refreshing 
water gushed forth for the perishing. About a million and a 
half of human beings were perishing for want of water, and as 
the hot wind passed over that scorched and burning plain, 
where all vegetation was dying, it carried upon its wings the 
wild cry of human despair. By the direction of God, Moses 
takes his stand beside the rock in Horeb, and lifts the rod that 
is in his hand, and strikes the rock three times, when behold I 
a clear, cool, refreshing stream of water gushes forth, and rolls 
away through the camp of Israel. 

See the joy that now beams forth from countenances where, 
but a few moments before, despair sat enthroned. I see moth- 
ers and fathers running with the precious drink to their perish- 
ing children, the strong carrying it to their weak and dying 
neighbors, and shouting the glad tidings in their ears ! Now, 
the Scriptures tell us that the striking of that rock, and the re- 
sult, was a type of Christ, " And did all drink the same spiritual 
drink ; for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, 
and that Rock was Christ." — i Cor. 10: 4. 

Those beautiful waters that broke out from the rock in Horeb, 



60 GLAD TIDINGS. 

were free for all the people. They were not intended for one 
part of the people to the exclusion of the rest. Suppose, how- 
ever, that a man had come and taken his stand beside the gush- 
ing waters with an empty pitcher in his hand. His eyes are 
blood-shot, his tongue cleaves to the roof of his mouth, and his 
whole appearance indicates extreme suffering for want of water ; 
yet instead of drinking and dipping his pitcher full, he stands 
saying within himself, " f am a poor creature ; I can do nothing 
of myself; it is true I am perishing for water, but I must wait 
God's good time ;" and he actually stands there expecting that 
in God's good time the water will flow up into his pitcher and 
fill it full. How long do you suppose he would have to wait ? 
Would God work another miracle to satisfy his whim, and to 
indulge his insolence in refusing to use the heaven-appointed 
means within his reach ? No : we can all see the folly of such 
conduct in temporal matters ; and yet in spiritual things many 
of my readers may be following a similar course. 

The Rock Christ Jesus was stricken for you The waters of 
salvation gush forth for you. The Lord's own invitation to 
you, is, " If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink." 
And yet, instead of taking your Saviour at his word, and sim- 
ply believing on him as all your salvation now, you are waiting for 
some specially favored time to come and fit you for going to Christ, 
by making your heart softer and purer than it is now ! That 
time will never come, and your heart will become harder, and 
you w r ill drift away farther from God the longer you stay away 
from Jesus. The only difference between one man and another 
in God's sight, is that one has believed on the Lord Jesus, and 
the other has not. Here are two men — one of them is a child 
of God, a joint heir with Christ, a crown of glory in reserve for 
him, and the favor of God now shining upon his path ; the 
other is under the curse of the law; the wrath of God abideth 
upon him, and dying in his present state his soul will be lost as 
sure as the God of truth has spoken. 

Now what has made this vast difference ? Simply, that the 
one has believed in the Lord Jesus, and the other has rejected 
him. This alone will make the difference between those on the 



THE THIRSTY INVITED, 6 1 

right hand and those on the left, in the day of judgment. And 
unbelief alone fixes the great gulf between heaven and hell for- 
ever ! One came to our Lord, in the days of his flesh, and said, 
"What shall I do that I may work the works of God ?" and the 
reply was, " This is the work of God, to believe on Him whom He 
hath sent." Not a single step can be taken heavenward till this 
is done. 

I have lately seen an account of a conversation between a 
Christian gentleman and a young lady, who was deeply anxious 
about her soul, that will illustrate this point. She described 
herself as "uncertain what to do." "Why are you uncertain 
what to do?" he asked. She replied, " I have been coming 
daily to these meetings for four weeks, and all that time I have 
felt anxious about my soul ; but all I do does not seem to make 
my case any better." "What do you try to do?" "I have 
striven to convince myself that I am a sinner — as I know I am. 
But though I know it, as a truth I do not feel about it as I 
should." "How would you feel about it if you could?" "I 
would have deep conviction." "What is your present impress- 
ion about yourself?" " That I am a great sinner — that is all." 
"And what would you have more?" "That is what I do not 
understand. My next step should be for deeper conviction. 
But what further can I do ?" 

" Your mistake is a very common one," he replied. " Your 
next step, and only step, is to Christ, just as you are. Go to 
Him at once. You can do nothing. Hitherto you have been 
relying upon yourself. Renounce all this as a dishonor done 
to Christ as a Saviour, and go to Him for all the help you need, 
hope for, or desire." "Oh!" said she, as if a new light had 
dawned upon her mind, "is that my next step?" "Not your 
next, as if you had already taken one or more right steps in re- 
ligion. Going to Christ is your first step and only step. He 
does not say, ' come to conviction — come to a deeper sense of 
sin.' But He says, ' Come unto me." " 

She then exclaimed, " O ! what a self-righteous creature I am ! 
I see it all now. I have been refusing Christ, while all this time 
I thought I was preparing to come to Him." "Will you go to 
Jesus now ?" " I will," was the emphatic reply. 



62 GLAD TIDINGS. 

Suppose a number of the Israelites, after Moses struck the 
rock, and after they had seen the waters gush forth, had not 
only refused to drink of these waters, but had gone and com- 
menced striking another rock, determined to obtain water for 
themselves or perish; their corpses would soon have lain around 
the rock, awful evidences of the danger of despising God's way 
of saving us, and of substituting our own. They might have 
been very sincere in their efforts to obtain water by their own 
works; they might have spent whole days and nights in the 
most earnest attempts to accomplish their object; but their sin- 
cerity would not make the water flow, nor make the Almighty 
abandon His own plan and adopt theirs. 

Paul bore witness to the sincerity of the Jews, when they were 
going about to establish a righteousness of their own, and would 
not submit themselves to the righteousness of Christ ; but he 
does not tell us that because of their sincerity, God will accept 
their righteousness instead of Christ's. No : sincerity is not re- 
ligion — it does not make error truth, nor change an act of hu- 
man pride into an act well pleasing to God. 

Over a river in Scotland, a strong stone bridge had been 
erected. Shortly after its completion, a furious storm of rain, 
of some days continuance, raised the waters of the river to a 
great height. The wild torrent came down with appalling force, 
bearing on its bosom the trunks of trees and huge blocks of 
wood. The arches of the bridge were filled with the rushing 
waters, and the strong structure seemed to shake under the 
pressure upon it. A crowd of persons were assembled on each 
side of the river, afraid to venture upon the bridge, and watch- 
ing with intense anxiety for the result — when all at once a man 
on horseback galloped up, and before any one could stop him, 
rode up to the very center of the bridge. There he stood, and 
in clear tones which rose above the roar of the tempest, ex- 
claimed, " I am not afraid, my friends ; I know it will not give 
way; I am sure it will stand." That man was the architect of 
the bridge, and he was thus boasting in the work of his own 
hands. To many his confidence appeared foolishness, though 
the result proved that his trust was not misplaced. 



THE THIRSTY INVITED. 63 

What a far more rational ground of confidence has the be- 
liever in the work of the Lord Jesus ! He feels that the foun- 
dation is perfect and can never give way. Amid the storms of 
coming wrath and the thunders of judgment, when great bil- 
lows of fire shall be rolling across our globe, he shall be able to 
lift up his triumphant voice, and say, " I know that my Redeem- 
er liveth. I know that He will keep what I have committed 
to Him against this day." Who shall lay anything to the charge 
of God's elect? 



CHAPTER X. 

THE NEW CREATURE. 

The Apostle Paul says, " If any man be in Christ Jesus, he is 
a new creature." I have been at some pains in former articles, 
to show that out of Christ the sinner cannot really perform any 
good work, for " whatsoever is not of faith is sin." Hence all at- 
tempts of men to make themselves holy first, before they come 
to Jesus, must prove a failure, and if persevered in, will end in 
eternal disaster. 

But it is equally true, that if a sinner truly believes in the 
Lord Jesus, he will begin at once to abound in good works. 
The Lord Jesus has done a work in true Christians as well as a 
work for them, and he never saves from the guilt of sin, with- 
out at the same time saving from its power. Accordingly, if be- 
lievers are said to be elected, it is " through sanctification of the 
Spirit." If they are said to be predestinated, it is " to be con- 
formed to the image of his Son." If they are said to be chosen, 
it is " that they may be holy before him in love." In short, the 
only evidence a man can give that he has a living and not a 
mere dead faith, is a holy life ; for faith " worketh by love and 
purifieth the heart." An old writer remarks, " Say not that thou 
hast royal blood in thy veins, and art born of God, except thou 
canst prove thy pedigree by daring to be holy." 

If a man had rather gossip at home or in his neighbor's 
house, than go to a prayer-meeting; if he had rather run to 
hear fifty sermons, than practice one; if he had rather talk 
about ministers and criticise their performances than pray for 
their success, or pay for their support ; if he had rather talk 
about a thousand sins in his brethren, than mortify one in him- 
self; if he had rather read the newspaper or the novel than 
God's Holy Word ; in fine, if he acts as if Christ was very 
holy, to save him the trouble of being so, he may rest assured 
64 



THE NEW CREATURE. 65 

that though he may pray with the seeming earnestness of an 
Elijah, and talk of his feelings like a Daniel, and weep like a 
Jeremiah, all his religion is only the cant of the hypocrite, or the 
ravings of the self-deceiver. 

Among the first evidences of the new creature in Christ Jesus, 
is a love for the Bible. One of the most common remarks which 
ministers hear from the lips of young converts, is, " Oh, sir, it 
seems to me like a new book !" They may have been taught to 
read and reverence it from their earliest youth ; they may have 
committed large portions of it to memory in the Sabbath School, 
and have acquired a general knowledge of its contents ; yet no 
sooner do they believe on Jesus, than untold beauty, which they 
never discovered before, gleams out on every page of it, and 
they exclaim with David, " O how I love thy law." 

Nor is this greatly to be wondered at, when we remember that 
the same Holy Spirit which inspired the Bible has now taken 
possession of their hearts, leading them not only to love it, but 
opening their eyes to discern "the things of the Spirit." And I 
have no doubt that the reason why so much of the professed piety 
of the present day is of such a stunted, dwarfish kind, is that it is 
more public than private, and more fed by harangues about re- 
ligion, than by the pure, unadulterated word of truth itself. 

If we read the memoirs of the martyrs and other holy men 
of God, whose undying example has shone down to us through 
the darkness of intervening years, we will find that their sturdy 
piety, vigorous faith, and unbending principle gathered daily 
strength from reading and meditating upon God's Word. If we 
read the lives of the men most pre-eminet for usefulness in the 
Church of God in modern times, we will find that they were all 
emphatically Bible Christians ; and from this holy source they 
drew that strength which enabled them, in the language of one, 
" to strike the kingdom of darkness with blows that resounded 
through eternity." 

That piety which is fed merely upon public meetings, narra- 
tives of personal experience, emotional hymns, sermons, and all 
that is exciting in religious gatherings, will be found to be a 
poor, fitful, sickly piety indeed ; while that piety which draws 



66 GLAD TIDINGS. 

all its nourishment from the Bible, will not only derive most 
good from public privileges, but like the source from which it 
draws its life, "will endure forever." 

Permit an illustration not drawn from imagination. In yon- 
der small cottage lives a poor widow, whose only son, a child of 
many prayers, left her many years ago, to enter upon the perils 
physical and moral, of a sailor's life. Since that time she has 
heard nothing of her loved one, and has long given him up for 
dead. One day her pastor is with her, directing her to the 
precious promises of the Bible, when a knock is heard at the 
door, and a letter is handed in. The widow perceives at a 
glance that it is the well-known handwriting of her long lost 
son. What excitement thrilled through her whole frame ! 
What joy lighted up her countenance, as she exclaimed, " My 
son is yet alive !" And with what eagerness was every word of 
that letter read and fondly lingered upon ! 

Reader, suppose that when she discovered the handwriting of 
her son, she had laid the letter carelessly upon a shelf till the 
dust of weeks accumulated upon it before she read it ; — would 
she have shown any evidence of love to her son ? Or, suppose, 
after a long time, she had taken it down just from a cold sense 
of duty, or to satisfy conscience, yawning and dozing at the end 
pf each paragraph ; — would this be any evidence of love to her 
son ? No : whatever might be her professions, you would know 
that there was not one spark of true motherly love in her heart, 
were she to act thus. 

The Bible is a letter from the Father of love, from whom we 
have been so long estranged. It speaks out the feelings of His 
heart toward us, and kindly invites us to return to the enjoy- 
ment of His favor. If we take no pleasure in reading it ; if we 
are unwilling to make any sacrifices to understand it more 
fully ; if we are delighted with the light and the trifling litera- 
ture of the day, and regard the Bible as dry and uninteresting, 
we may rest assured that it is because " the love of the Father 
is not in us." 

My dear reader, cultivate an intimate and intelligent ac- 
quaintance with your Heavenly Father's will. Study the whole 



THE NEW CREATURE. 67 

of it, for it is all profitable. As a good old Christian once re- 
marked, " The Old Testament is the New Testament revealed." 
It will be to us a guide through a world of darkness and per- 
plexity ; wiping the eye of sorrow ; cheering the heart of sad- 
ness, and flashing the light of its glorious promises across the 
valley of the shadow of death. 

Another evidence of the new creature, is love to the Lord 
Jesus. An officer on the field of battle was engaged in person- 
al conflict with one of the enemy, when he slipped and fell to 
the ground : in an instant his opponent's sword was lifted for 
his destruction, when one of his men, who loved him, threw him- 
self between him and the uplifted weapon, and received it in 
his own heart. Now, as the officer rose from the ground cover- 
ed with the blood of the man who had laid down his life for 
him, must not the emotion of love have filled his heart to over- 
filowing? 

And it is not possible for any one to believe that Jesus in- 
terposed between the point of the sword of Divine Justice and 
his guilty heart, and received in his own innocent heart the ter- 
rible blow which the sinner deserved, without feeling the kind- 
ness of a love that will be as permanent as God's throne. 
Hence, all over the world, and under all variety of circum- 
stances, Christians are able- to say, "Lord, thou knowest all 
things, thou knowest that I love thee." 

It is said that after the battle of Waterloo, a surgeon going 
over the field to aid the suffering, came to a French soldier 
badly wounded. As he began to probe the wound to find the 
fatal bullet, the dying man started up with a convulsive effort, 
and exclaimed, "A little deeper, and you will find the emperor," 
meaning his heart. So wherever you find a Christian, without 
respect to color or clime, from the frigid to the torrid zone, you 
will find that, deeper than the love of home, deeper than the 
love of kindred, deeper than the love of life itself, is the love 
of the Lord Jesus. One of the primitive Christians when 
brought to the bar of Trajan, and asked, "Art thou a Chris- 
tian ?" replied, "I am: I have Christ in me." Trajan then 
asked him to deny Christ, when he exclaimed, " What ! shall 



68 GLAD TIDINGS. 

I deny my Lord and Master? I have Christ in me. He was 
immediately led to martyrdom. 

Among the first feelings produced by the belief of the Gospel, is 
joy, and the next is love. If a person -were to rush into a burn- 
ing building and save your life when in great danger, your first 
emotien would be joy because of your own deliverence, but 
your second emotion, as soon as you had time for reflection, 
would be that of gratitude to your deliverer. Thus it is that 
the reception of the gospel truth makes the sinner happy and holy 
at the same time. " Faith worketh by love and purifieth the 
heart." 

Hence it is, that the young convert abandons the scenes of 
former gayety and worldly pleasure, in which he bore a con- 
spicuous part, because he has ceased to have any enjoyment in 
them ; his new-found joy in God and love to Jesus having given 
him new enjoyments, as much superior to those of the world, as 
the sun is to the glimmering light of a taper. His worldly 
friends think that the reason why he has left their dancing par- 
ties and the exciting scenes of the theatre, is the dread of hell 
or the fear of the censure of the church, or a desire to stand 
well with his new associates ; but this is a great mistake. He 
has ceased to find any pleasure where he formerly sought it so 
eagerly, and he has begun to drink of those rivers of pleasure 
that are to gladden his soul forever. 

It is said that there was a deep trench around the walls of 
the ancient city of Babylon, which, when opened, could absorb 
the waters of the great river Euphrates and leave its channel 
dry ; so the love of Christ has produced such a full and satisfy- 
ing joy in the soul, that all worldly channels of pleasure are left 
dry and worthlesss. 

Whenever I hear professing Christians beginning to inquire 
what harm there can be in the social dance, or what harm there 
can be in the theatre, or in games of chance, I always know 
that it is a sign that the love of Christ is declining in their 
hearts, if indeed it ever existed at all. It is an attempt to get 
something to satisfy conscience, and is virtually declaring that 
the bread of life with which Christ feeds the soul does not sat 



THE NEW CREATURE. 69 

isfy, and that therefore they are anxious to find some excuse for 
getting back to the service of Satan. And, instead of arguing 
the Tightness or the wrongness of those things of which no truly 
spiritual mind has any doubt, I would say, Take heed, my 
brother, to your own heart. Your Lord has warned you, not 
only against going back, but against even looking back j and 
you are instructed not to seem to come short. You are to shun 
the very appearance of evil, and the very fact that you are be- 
ginning to glance with approval at the abounding iniquity of 
the world, shows that your love to the Redeemer is "waxing 
cold." Take that cold heart again to Jesus ; and rest not sat- 
isfied till it is brimming over with his love, "who was holy, 
harmless, and separated from sinners.' 

An anxious desire for the salvation of the perishing is an evi- 
dence of the new creature in Christ Jesus. Suppose this day 
that a stranger were to enter your house. His apparel is plain, 
and almost mean. His cast of countenance is kind and benev- 
olent, and yet a solemn sadness sits upon it, as if the shadow of 
some big sorrow were passing over it. This stranger begins to 
speak to you, and his words burn into your very heart. His 
conversation lifts your mind from the vain and the perishing, — 
makes you feel as if you heard the echo of those transporting 
strains that fill the courts of heaven. 

You are wondering who this stranger can be, when all at once 
your eyes are opened, and you see that you are in the presence 
of your Saviour. He shows you the scars of those wounds he 
bore for you, and with that mild eye fixed upon you, which 
broke Peter's heart, he asks you if you love him. With a trem- 
bling earnestness you answer, " Blessed Saviour, I do love thee !" 
He tells you that all around you are dying sinners. That he 
has shed his precious blood for them, and longs for their salva- 
tion with a depth of solicitude of which you can form no con- 
ception. And then he asks you, as an evidence of your love to 
him, that you will go to them and tell them the story of his love, 
and urge them to flee from the wrath to come. Christians, Je- 
sus is thus speaking to you. The perishing are thus around you. 
Thev live in your houses, they eat at your boards; you mingle 



7° GLAD TIDINGS. 

with them every day in the business of life. 0, as you love the 
Lord Jesus, as you value an eternity of bliss, and as you would 
not, in the day of judgment, be found red all over with the blood 
of souls, try to pluck them as " brands from the burning." 



CHAPTER XI. 

. WORKING FOR JESUS. 

It is a source of sublime satisfaction to reflect that the ouse 
of Christ on earth is destined to enjoy a perfect triumph. We 
have the authority of God's word for believing that long as the 
sun shall shine — long as the moon sends her silvery beams 
across the world — the name of Jesus shall thrill the human heart 
with the magic of its power. The Lord whom we serve is erect- 
ing a spiritual temple upon the Rock of Ages, and " the gates of 
hell shall not prevail against it." Amid the rising and the fall- 
ing of empires, amid the rush and the conflict of hostile parties, 
in spite of the unholy intrigues of political schemers, and the 
proud boasts of infidel blasphemers, that temple shall continue 
to increase in strength and loveliness, till the top stone is 
brought forth amid shoutings of grace, grace ! 

But how is a result so glorious to be brought about ? Not by 
a time-serving policy, and a spirit of unholy compromise on the 
part of God's people ; not by keeping in the background the 
great truths of the Gospel, for which Apostles contended, even 
unto death ; not by splitting God's truth into portions, and call- 
ing them essential and non-essential, important and unimpor- 
tant, in order to suit the taste and to gain the favor of a degen- 
erate world. No. If truth is to triumph, it must be by the 
display of a spirit the very reverse of all this, — a spirit which 
bows with the profoundest reverence before the.w/io/e of the re- 
vealed will of God, and cherishes every part of Gospel truth as 
its life and strength, — a spirit which, while it loves the whole 
body of the faithful, called by what name they may be, and while 
it weeps burning tears over a perishing world, still adheres, with 
stern resolution, to the laws and established order of Christ's 
kingdom, and had rather die a thousand deaths than yield up a 

7 1 



7 2 GLAD TIDINGS. 

single fragment of "the truth as it is in Jesus." This was the 
Spirit of the great Captain of our salvation; this the spirit which 
inspired the faithful in all ages, and the man who possesses it 
leaves the impress of his own lofty character upon society, and 
occupies the high and honorable position of a faithful witness 
for God. 

Much is said in the present day about Christian charity, and 
of the necessity of its controlling the judgment we form of those 
who differ from us in opinion. Now, it is vastly important that 
we should possess that charity, which is first of all the graces, 
and without which the most high-sounding professions are but 
an empty name. But there is a principle which passes current 
in society for Christian charity, which has nothing of charity 
but the name. True charity is the child of heaven ; this has 
its birth of earth. True charity rejoices in the truth ; this sac- 
rifices truth to expediency. True charity is hated by the world ; 
this, by the wicked, is rapturously applauded. True charity 
thinks of what is right, and leaves consequences with God ; this 
thinks of consequences first, and leaves the right to be the child 
of circumstances. True charity " rejoiceth in the truth." It 
boldly adheres to what is right, rather than to what is popular, 
and, undaunted by the cry of bigotry, which the ignorant and 
the designing may raise against it, " contends earnestly for the 
faith once delivered to the saints." It says, " I fear God and I 
know no other fear." 

Dear Reader, I entreat you to cherish unshaken confidence 
in the power of truth. Truth in the hand of Jehovah is omnip- 
otent, men may shackle it ; they may imprison it ; they may, 
for a time, bury it amid the rankest errors, and the most un- 
seemly and unshapen evils; but loose its shackels, give it room 
for operation, and it will arise, fresh and immortal, and dispel 
everything around it that wants the impress of its own holy na- 
ture. It says nothing against the power of truth, that error is 
sometimes so prevalent, that it seems to triumph over it. As 
well might we argue against the pervading nature of light, be- 
cause there are many dungeons in the world that have never 
been visited by a single ray. When we darken our houses by 



WORKING FOR JESUS. 73 

shutting our doors, and keeping out the light from our windows, 
is this held as evidence that light is less powerful than darkness ? 

I fear there are many professing Christians in the present day 
who have very little faith in the power of truth, or in the over- 
ruling providence of God ; for they will not breathe a syllable 
against popular error, till they have measured, and ascertained 
to a nicety, the length and breadth of consequences, and how 
far they may safely venture without giving offence. Why are 
men so much afraid of conseqences now ? O, that like Noah, 
and Daniel, and Paul, they would but do their duty, and trust 
God with results! Why should we suspect God's fidelity? 
Why should we act as if he were a Being who sees no distinc- 
tion between right and wrong, and who is ever ready to aban- 
don the cause of truth and holiness, which he has sworn to 
maintain ? Why should we act as if he were in the habit of 
breaking his word, and leaving in their trying moments, those 
who speak truth and work righteousness ? 

Beloved reader, my prayer for you is that you may be bold 
for the truth, and that a double portion of the Spirit of God 
may be given you, that when the storms of opposition from the 
world begin to rage around you, you may/eel the pleasant light 
of the sun of righteousness shining upon your soul, and stand, — 

" Like some tall cliff that lifts its awful form, 
Swells from the vail and midway leaves the storm ; 
Around whose base, while rolling clouds are spread, 
Eternal sunshine settles on its head." 

These lines present the picture of a " great head," rising su- 
perior to detraction, and fixing a single eye upon the Saviour, 
while sore beset by the world's opposition. It is such a picture 
as is presented in the first Christian martyr — the devoted 
Stephen. Think of what that God-like man saw ere he forgave 
his enemies, and " fell asleep." " Behold," said he, " I see the 
heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand 
of God." He saw Jesus, not sitting, but standing. Now, it is 
said, " When he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down on 
the right hand of the Majesty on high;" and when he ascended 



74 GLAD TIDINGS. 

the Father said to him, as evidence that his work was accepted, 
"Sit on my right hand, till I make thy enemies thy footstool." 
But when Jesus looked down, and saw the dauntless Stephen 
defending his cause single-handed, in the midst of bloody men, 
he stood up to receive and welcome the soul of his servant. 
Like Joseph with his brethren, he could no longer refrain him- 
self. O, who can tell with what intense interest the Prince of 
Martyrs stood and gazed upon him who was proving faithful 
unto death ! Glorious sight ! Well might Stephen " rejoice in 
spirit " when he saw that Almighty gush of tenderness toward 
him. There he saw a Saviour, who more than died a thousand 
deaths for him, and whose sounding bowels longing for his em- 
brace, parted the sky asunder, and made the way to heaven 
ready, ere he was ready to enter. Well may he strike now with 
a bolder hand the celestial lyre, and roll his deathless songs 
over the hills of paradise. Who can now forbid him to tell of 
Immanuel's love, or pluck the laurels from the sacred brow of 
the martyr? He can now roll on his immortal numbers in 
praise of Jesus, and none can taunt him with singing too long 
or too loud of his excellencies. 

And what, my dear reader, should hinder us from catching 
up the chorus ? Is the " Lamb slain," less worthy of our praises 
now than he will be hereafter ? What although we hear every- 
where around us the hissing of the serpent? Let us drown his 
loud hissing by our louder praises. Those who work hardest 
for Jesus now, and are least ashamed of him now, will hereafter 
shine brightest in glory. While vice walks forth boldly, and 
reigns rampant, let not Christians be ashamed boldly to ac- 
knowledge Christ's cause ; not in secret places, but in the face 
of day ; not in whispers, but in tones loud enough to convince 
sinners that they are in downright earnest, and that they fear 
their eternal destruction more than any reproaches they can 
cast on them. Time was when Christians rose with the sun, 
and boldly sung the praises of the Lord, and made it the very 
business of their lives to promote his glory. But " the god of 
this world," not liking such proceedings, raised a storm and 
drove them into " dens and caves of the earth." 



WORKING FOR JESUS. 75 

Satan can ill endure the thought that Christians should be as 
bold for Christ as sinners are for him ; and rather than allow 
them to be so, he will move earth and hell to abash and dis- 
courage them. He dreads to see believers stand up for God iu 
open day. He knows, indeed, the power of secret prayer, but 
he knows also that God will not own prayer unless it is sec- 
onded by action. When this is not the case, the prayer is in- 
sincere, and cannot be heard. Let our prayers, then, be ac- 
companied by bold action, the bolder the better, unless it be 
inconsiderate and rash. Our Saviour not only gives us the cup 
of life for ourselves, but promises us a reward if we help it 
round to others. He offers a premium, proportioned to the 
activity of those who become co-workers with him in pleading 
with others to receive the cup of salvation. 

You cannot wish to have the blood of souls upon you in the 
great day, when the Master appears ; then be now faithful in 
presenting the Saviour to all who come under your influence. 
To be privileged to tell the glad story of the cross ; to stand 
between the Eternal God and perishing men, as they rush on in 
haste to perdition, and entreat them to be reconciled to God, is 
the most solemn work that man can engage in on this side of 
the eternal world. This work is not committed to ministers 
alone, for the Lord says, " Let him that heareth, say come."' 
The persons with whom you daily come in contact, are not the 
creatures of a day, whose knell is to be rung when the light of 
life forsakes their eyes. All* is not to be over with them when 
they reach the boundary line that separates time from eternity,, 
else might you have some excuse for your indifference. But 
they are to live as long as God lives, in bliss unspeakable, or in 
woe of which no imagination can form a conception. 

They are now living amid the light of the Gospel, which per- 
mits of no neutrality, and which must prove the savor of life or 
of death to each of their souls. Upon you it may depend 
whether they are to be saved or lost. O, my brother, this great 
responsibility Jesus puts upon you ! It is a responsibility under 
which an angel might tremble, and would fall upon our minds 
with a crushing weight were it not that the same Lord who 
gives the command, promises also strength for its performance 



7 6 GLAD TIDINGS. 

Besides, he only asks us to go and tell his truth : he does not 
ask us to go and be successful j for success is his work, not ours. 
The sinner may scorn your message, and fling back the truth 
you utter with a proud contempt ; but the fact that you have 
warned him with tearful earnestness, and with a loving heart, 
will acquit you of all blame in the day of the Lord. 

A father, one beautiful summer afternoon, went out to walk 
in the fields, with his little daughter, a child of some four or five 
years of age. While the little one amused herself in picking 
flowers and chasing butterflies, the father sat down under the 
shadow of a tree, and fell asleep. He slept but a short time ; 
but when he awoke his loved one was no where to be seen. In 
earnest tones he called her name, but echo only answered his 
voice, when, discovering a precipice at one side of the field, he 
rushed to its edge and gazed over, when, to his horror, he saw 
the corpse of his dear child, her fair hair stained in her own 
blood. 

Who can tell the anguish of that father ? He blamed him- 
self with her death, and in wild and frantic words called him- 
self her murderer. It was a heavy burden upon his mind till 
his dying day. Dear parent, take heed that you do not slumber 
and sleep in spiritual indifference, while your dear children are 
dropping into hell ! If their bodies are suffering, you run in 
eager haste for medical aid, and hang over them in deep 
anguish ; but, O, neglect not the disease of the soul ! Send for 
the Great Physician, in believing and importunate prayer, say- 
ing " Come down ere my child die." He will hear you, and 
make your children God's children and heirs of Eternal Glory. 



THE GOSPEL FEAST, 77 



CHAPTER XII. 
THE GOSPEL FEAST. 

Dear Reader : I have now set before you the world's hope, 
as seen in Christ crucified. The great feast of God's love has 
been spread before you, and you have been earnestly, lovingly 
urged to partake. " O ! taste and see that the Lord is gra- 
cious." It is to me a matter of deep, heart-felt solicitude 
what you will do with this invitation. Will you reject it or 
receive it ? Your eternal well-being hangs upon your decis- 
ion. I am solemnly reminded of our Lord's parable of the 
great marriage feast, and of the man who came there without 
a proper garment, and before parting I would call your atten- 
tion to the lessons taught us by that instructive parable : 
Matt., xxii., n and 12: "And when the King came in to 
see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wed- 
ding garment; and he said unto him, Friend, how earnest 
thou in hither not having a wedding garment ? And he was 
speechless." 

Our Blessed Saviour here uses one of 'his striking parables, 
to show God's dealings with his creatures, both under the Old 
and the New Dispensations. A great king is represented as 
preparing a feast on the occasion of the marriage of his son. 
There were certain invited guests to whom the king sent a 
general call to come to the banquet, as all was now ready. 
They, however, treated the call with contempt, and went their 
ways, one to his farm, and another to his merchandize ; while 
some others laid hold of the king's servants, treating them 
shamefully, and even putting some of them to death. Against 
such vile and ungrateful conduct the king's resentment flamed 
forth, and he sent out his armies to destroy the murderers, and 
to burn up their cities. 



78 GLAD TIDINGS. 

L , t because those first invited proved themselves unworthy, 
and ungrateful, is the feast to be unattended and lost ? No 
He again commissions his servants to go forth with a free, gen- 
eral invitution to all to come to the feast : yea, to go to the 
highways and use the most pressing invitations, that the ban- 
queting-room may be filled. This is done, the guest chamber 
is filled, the king comes in to see his company, when one soli- 
tary individual is noticed as not arrayed in a wedding gar- 
ment , the reason for this strange neglect is demanded, but the 
offender is speechless — he has not a word of excuse to utter 
He is, therefore, ordered to be bound hand and foot, and cast 
into outer darkness. 

Our Lord's meaning in this parable it is not difficult to see 
The Jews had been a chosen, a peculiar people, to whom God 
had committed his holy oracles, and to whom a long line of 
prophets and hcly men had been sent to invite them to come 
to God's banquet of love. Many of these messengers that 
came with Jehovah's message on their lips, were treated with 
the fiercest scorn, and even put to death. The gracious Sa- 
viour himself, and his Apostles, invited them to the feast with 
no better result. Still God treated them with amazing for- 
bearance and long-suffering, for after the crucifixion of our 
Lord, when the full atonement had been made by the slaying 
of the Lamb, and in a special sense the feast might be said to 
be ready, he renewed the invitation in a most pressing form. 
The Apostles were commanded to begin at Jerusalem, the 
capital of their nation, and offer them salvation. Yes, the 
very men who had nailed the Holy Redeemer to the cross, and 
whoes hands were red with the blood of murder, had the offer 
of free forgiveness through the blood of the cross. God had 
sent his own Son to them, and they had rejected him, and 
treated him with the most malignant hate; but that rejected, 
despised Saviour still invites them, through the lips of his ser- 
vants, to come to him, and the streets of Jerusalem resound 
with the glad tidings. 

But all this wealth of love is displayed in vain. The last mes- 
sengers are treated even worse than the first. They became 



THE GOSPEL FEAST. 79 

maddened at the very offer of pardon, because it implied guilt, 
which they were too proud to acknowledge. At last the 
measure of their iniquity became full, and the wrath of the 
Great King blazed forth against them. He sent against them 
avenging armies, and their beautiful city was burned. Fear- 
ful retribution came upon them. Abandoned to their own vile 
passions, discord, petty jealousy, ungovernable rage, and wild 
anarchy took possession of the people. Thousands upon 
thousands of them perished miserably by famine and battle ; 
while the rest were dispersed, as wanderers and vagabonds, 
among all lands ; covering every shore with the fragments of a 
nation's shipwreck. 

But the Great King would not suffer his provided feast to 
be unattended. His servants went forth to the highways and 
hedges, with an unlimited invitation. No longer confined to 
the Jews, nor to the people of any one nation, the invitation 
was to the whole world, " Come, for all things are now ready." 
To the Jews the awful words had been uttered, " Seeing ye 
count yourselves unworthy of eternal life, lo ! we turn to 
the Gentiles." The whole world was to be the field of exer- 
tion for God's heralds, and salvation was to be published in 
all the highways of the earth to every tribe of man. 

Some, we learn, may come into the guest chamber, which 
means Christ's visible church, who are not Christians — who 
have not the robe of the Saviour's righteousness upon them. 
But the glance of Christ's eye is upon such, and though they 
may deceive their fellow men, they cannot deceive him. This 
man was among that large class, who seem to think that to be 
in Christ's Church is as good as being in Christ himself. Alas ! 
how many now are in the world of woe, who when upon earth 
were in the outward church ! They heard the word of God 
with deep attention ; they broke off many outward sins ; they 
took a warm interest in religious matters ; parents and minis- 
ters were greatly encouraged, and spoke of them as Christians ; 
they were encouraged to unite with the church, and may even 
have been elevated to official positions in the house of God; 
till at last God in his providence applied such tests, or placed 



So 



OLAD TIDINGS. 



them in such circumstances, as developed their true character, 
and showed that the root of the matter was not in them. An 
egg and an egg-shell are very different, and yet at a little dis- 
tance they look very much alike ; so a man who has but an 
empty profession may, on ordinary occasions, appear as well 
as the man who has Christ in his heart, the hope of glory ; but 
when the testing time comes, which God is sure to send, the 
difference will be made most apparent. 

Standing upon the mountain top, in the summer time, and 
looking upon the forest clothed in its beautiful mantle of 
green, you could not tell the trees that are evergreens from the 
others ; but, wait till the cold, bleak, wolfish winds of winter 
come, and you will see the difference. So in a church when 
all is prosperous. A popular minister fills the pulpit, and 
crowds constantly fill the place of worship ; great numbers are 
from time to time added to their ranks ; the financial affairs of 
the church are easy, and it acquires the name of being the 
leading religious interest in the plase. Ah ! then it is very 
difficult to tell the empty professors from the true believers. 
But let a sifting time come — let the popular preacher leave — 
let divisions and bitter animosities get into their counsels — let 
financial difficulties begin to press upon that tender and sensi- 
tive part of man — the pocket — and soon it will be seen who 
are the mere summer professors. The true Christians then 
come out in all their glory ; standing by the church with a 
warmer affection and a more steadfast zeal, the more her trials 
and troubles increase. " Like a tree planted by rivers of 
water, that bringeth forth fruit in his season, his leaf also shall 
not wither." The testing time tells which are the evergreens. 

See yonder two houses standing upon the bank of a beauti- 
ful stream. In outward seeming the houses are equally good. 
They have stood there for years, answering all the purposes of 
a comfortable home to their respective owners. But a testing 
time comes at last. The stream swells, one dark night, far 
beyond its usual proportions. It overflows its banks, and with 
a wild uproar, its dark, frowning waves beat upon those two 
houses. And hark ! amid the howiing of the winds and the 






THE GOSPEL FEAST. 8 1 

furious dashing of the waters, a despairing cry of human voices 
comes from one of the houses. It has begun to shake and 
break up under the pressure of the surgingbillows, and soon, with 
its miserable inhabitants that trusted in it, it is seen moving 
off upon the bosom of the angry waters, to form part of the 
accumulating pile of rubbish that marks their desolating 
course. This house was built upon the sand, and could not 
stand the time of trial ; the other stood firm, for it was founded 
upon a rock. 

To every man, sooner or later, the testing time will come. 
It is right that it should. It is part of our probation. Under 
its sifting power there may be the blasting of many hopes — 
hopes made strong by the culture and indulgence of many 
years ; some who seemed pillars in the house of God, in the 
day of trial may prove to have been rotten pillars, only covered 
with a little paint and varnish; but God's true people will 
stand unmoved under every trial ; the severest test having no 
more effect upon them than the fluttering of the insects wing 
upon the hard granite rock. "The foundation of God standeth 
sure." We lately saw a boy exhibit, with much pride, what 
he supposed was a silver dollar ; it was bright and beautiful, 
and he spoke with delight of what it would buy. But when 
the testing time came, and he presented it at the counter of 
the store, it was found to be counterfeit. He wept bitterly, 
but all the tears in the world could not change the worthless 
thing into silver. And so the only hope that will pass current 
at heaven's bank, is a hope founded alone in the death and 
righteousness of Jesus. 

My dear reader, when I think of the worth of your soul, 
the tremendous peril to which you are exposed, the powerful 
means you have resisted, and the hardening process in your 
mind that has been going on ; when I see you standing on a 
precipice, drawn downward by the horrid fascination of sin, 
O, how earnestly I long to compel you to come in. But how 
are you to be compelled ? Friends can not do it, ministers 
can not do it, churches cannot do it, vast armies, and the pow- 
er of kings could not do it; it is not a physical compulsion, 



82 GLAD TIDINGS, 

but the tender, holy compulsion of love — the love of Christ. 
This has been tried upon you, is being tried now ; O, if it fails, 
all fails ! If this does not draw you in, you must be forever 
left out. 

The test that was applied to this man was confined to one 
single point, namely, the possessing a wedding garment. By 
this we are to understand the garment of Christ's righteous- 
ness. If we are covered with that, all will be well; if not, we 
shall be covered with confusion. The king did not inves- 
tigate his past life, whether he had been a great sin- 
ner or not, whether he had stood well among his fel- 
low men for his moral deportment, or had been regarded as 
one who had outraged all the decencies of society ; the one 
fault for which he was cast out was not having on a wedding 
garment. This was the test point. 

To understand this better, we should remember that it was 
a Jewish custom, on the occasion of a marriage festival, to 
offer each guest as he entered a suitable garment. They were 
not called upon to provide garments for themselves, for men 
called in off the highways might plead as an excuse that they 
had no opportunities of obtaining a proper garment. Hence 
this man was speechless. He had no excuse to offer. The 
king knew, and he knew himself, and all in the assembly 
knew, that it was entirely his own fault that he appeared as he 
was — that a garment had been offered him and rejected. 

So it is in the Gospel feast. We are not required to dress 
ourselves, to fit ourselves for appearing before God ; we are 
only required to put on the holy garb of righteousness, that 
has already been provided for us. Hence, if we are found at 
last by the Great King clothed in our own filthy rags, we will 
not have a word of excuse to offer, but must be covered with 
shame and everlasting confusion. How effectually does this 
answer the objection of those who, when pressed to come to 
Christ, say, " I am not good enough yet ! Very true ; and you 
never will be good enough. And it is for that very reason 
that God has provided a way by which you can come, inde- 
pendent of your goodness. " But," says one, " I am not at 



THE GOSPEL FEAST. 83 

all satisfied with myself." I hope you never will be. The 
Bible does not say, " Being satisfied with ourselves, we have 
peace with God," but it does say, "Being justified by faith, we 
have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ." It is 
not satisfaction with ourselves, with our faith, or our motives, 
or our works, that is urged upon us, but satisfaction with Christ. 
It is not peace arising from an exalted opinion of myself, but 
from an exalted conception of the fullness that is in Christ. 

Dear reader, if in the great day of investigation it should 
be found that you have not on the robe of Christ's righteous- 
ness, you will not be able to plead that you had no opportuni- 
ties of obtaining it. You will know, and an assembled world 
will know, and all men and angels will know, that it has again 
and again been offered you, and that you would not accept it. 
The Spirit strove, the Bible urged, ministers preached, friends 
entreated, conscience rebuked, and all in vain ! Ah, poor 
soul ! are you to sink at last in the whirlpool of God's wrath, 
while the life-boat of salvation is near to save you ? When 
the earth reels to and fro, when the heavens are on fire, and 
the stars are falling, in the light of a burning world, you will 
curse your folly and madness in neglecting to array yourself 
in the spotless robe that Christ has provided ! 

Why not come now, even while your eyes are upon this 
page, and cast your sins on Jesus ? He atoned for sins of every 
name and of every dye ; for sins against light and knowledge ; 
sins against law and gospel ; sins of omission and commis- 
sion ; the sins of youth, of middle age, and of hoary years, all 
have been laid upon Jesus. Your sins, that no arithmetic 
could number, that no eloquence could describe — dark and 
black in their moral turpitude as hell itself— the blessed Sa- 
viour has suffered for. Freely and fully you will be par- 
doned. Your guilty fears will all be taken away; youi 
calling and election made sure ; your soul, serene and joyful, 
will delight to follow the lamb whithersoever he goeth ; and at 
last, with the blood-washed throng who have been gathered 
from the world's highways, you shall sit down at the marriage 
supper of the Lamb. 



84 GLAD TIDINGS. 

It is a very emphatic part of this parable, that this man was 
cast out because he lacked one thing. There was not made 
out against him a long catalogue of sins and imperfections, for 
which he was to be condemned. Had he possessed that one 
thing, all would have been well. So is it with faith in the Lord 
Jesus Christ. " He that believeth not, is condemned already." 
What a watch is without a mainspring, what a ship is without 
a helm or a compass, what a row of cyphers would be without 
a unit before them, is the soul that has no faith in Christ. 
There may be many good things about him, but the one thing 
wanting is a vital thing. Unbelief is the cause of every sin, 
the grand root of all iniquity in the human soul. It is the 
damning sin. That which is filling hell with victims, which is 
robbing souls of happiness here and eternal joys hereafter, is 
the God-dishonoring sin of unbelief. The act of faith secures 
to the soul the garment of Christ's righteousness, and ensures 
its admittance into the heaven of purity and love, where God 
and holy spirits dwell. There, in the language of the poet — 

11 Out of your last home, dark and cold, 
Thou shalt pass to a city whose streets are gold ; 
From the silence that falls upon sin and pain, 
To the deathless joys of the angels' strain, 
Well shall be ended what ill begun, 
Out of the shadow into the sun." 

I would call attention to the deportment of the man de- 
tected without the wedding garment. He made no excuses; 
he uttered no remonstrances ; he was speechless. This is very 
solemn and impressive. It is far more awful than if we had 
been told that he uttered a wild shriek of despair! His folly 
and madness causing his tongue to cleave to the roof of his 
mouth, strikes us as something far more awakening than words. 
The wicked rushing about in uncontrollable anguish, and call- 
ing upon the rocks and the hills to fall upon them, does not 
impress us so strongly as this man's speechless anguish. At 
present, sinners have excuses enough to make, and find words 
plenty with which to vindicate themselves to their fellow-men, 
for not becoming: Christians. When we urge them, without 






THE GOSPEL FEAST. gc 

delay, to accept a Saviour's gracious offers, they tell us of the 
inconsistency of professed Christians, the pressure of their 
worldly cares, the temptations to which they are exposed, the 
strength and impetuosity of their natural passions, the obscu- 
rity of the word of God, and a long list of other excuses. 
But when they shall come to stand before God, and feel that 
his eye is looking them through and through, it will be quite 
different. They will be struck dumb in his presence. 

They will then know that God will not listen to excuses, but 
to reasons. And even now the sinner knows that he has no 
reasons to give. But in the light of eternity this will be more 
fully felt : memory bringing up vividly all his past privileges, 
every solemn warning he has received, every sermon to which 
he has listened, every Sabbath when God has come near to 
him in love, every time that the Spirit has striven with him, 
every alarming Providence that has startled him from his indif- 
ference, all vows and promises and resolutions that have been 
broken ; these, with all the events of his life, will be present 
with him, and palsy his tongue into silence. Memory will be 
inconceivably strengthened in eternity. The whole of our 
words, thoughts, actions and privileges will be recalled. Our 
whole past history will be vividly before us. Now, the sinner 
forgets his sins, fast as he commits them ; but there, they will 
come up distinct and awful, in all their aggravations of being 
committed against light and knowledge. Children of pious 
parents will then remember the counsels, the tears and the 
prayers of those dear ones, as they labored for their salvation. 
The seasons of family prayer, the pious books put into their 
hands, the religious meetings to which they were taken, all will 
come up with the vividness of a present reality ; and Oh ! if 
they have all been in vain, how will the memory sting through 
all eternity ! Think of eternity spent in counting over Sab- 
baths lost, privileges abused, parental instructions trampled 
upon, and in hearing again from memory, truths mocked at 
when first heard ! And then, to remember that it is now for- 
ever too late to derive any benefit from these truths ! " Hell 
is truth seen too late ! " - 



86 GLAD TIDINGS. 

My dear reader, there is but one day in which you can be 
saved, and that is the day of salvation. There is but one way 
in which you can be saved, and that is through faith in Jesus. 
When the huge billows of the flood surged around the globe, 
there was but one ark of safety ; there was but one means of 
deliverance for the people of Israel, when the destroying 
angel passed on his mission of death, at the dark midnight 
hour ; when the fiery serpents scattered death through their 
camp, there was but one brazen serpent lifted up with healing 
power ; but one rock that sent forth refreshing waters; and on 
the great day of atonement, but one scape-goat to bear away 
the people's sins. In like manner, there is but one name given 
under heaven, or among men, by which we can be saved — even 
the name of Jesus. And there is but one thing a sinner can 
do to be saved ; that is, to believe in that precious Saviour. 

You remember that anxious father that once came to the 
Lord Jesus with a sore burden of grief. About twelve years 
before, God had given him a very precious gift, a little daugh- 
ter ; and every day since, he had learned to prize the gift more 
and more. The house that had so often been made happy by 
her innocent prattle and merry laugh, is now silent and sad; 
for the little maid is dying. The distressed father had heard 
of the wonder-working saviour, and in his deep anguish he 
said, "I will go to him." And Jesus said to him, "Be ye not 
afraid ; only believe." As if he had said, " Only trust me, and I 
will attend to all the rest." So it is with you. Jesus has left 
you nothing to do, but simply to trust in his finished work. 
Only believe, and all will be well with your soul forever. Pon- 
der solemnly your position before God. Are you found with 
the garment of Christ's righteousness upon you, or do you 
want that one thing needful ? God's best, greatest, most pre- 
cious gift is offered to you ; can you prefer your own filthy rags f 
In yourself, you can never find any ground of merit on which 
God can receive you into his eternal home. You can never so 
live that the eternally Holy One will pronounce you blameless 
Come, then, and accept that spotless robe of Jesus, in which 
you will be presented faultless before God. Only believe, and 



THE GOSPEL FEAST. 87 

trust your eternal safety to Christ. We are told that in a 
public school in New York, the alarm of fire was given. A 
terrible panic ensued; a rush was made for -the doors, and one 
of the teachers, a young lady, was much injured by jumping 
from a window. In the midst of the furious panic, one little 
girl sat unmoved ; and when order had been restored, she was 
asked how she could sit so still and be so calm, when all the 
others were in terror. " My father," said she, "is a fireman; 
and he told me if there was an alarm of fire in the school, I 
must just sit still." This was true faith in a father's word and 
wisdom. She believed, and it gave her sweet peace. 

" Still there is room in the banqueting hall — 
Room at the Gospel-feast, still room for all; 
To the table though millions already have come, 
Still there is room for more — still there is room. 
Then go call the lame, and the halt, and the blind, 
For all things are ready. The table is spread 
With the wine, and the oil, and the heavenly bread. 
The bread and the oil are the choicest, the best; 
And the wine from the fruit of the True Vine is pressed. 
Such dainties no storehouse on earth can afford; 
The storehouse of heaven has furnished the board, 
Nor will it be drawn while a guest you can find 
'Mong the outcast, the hungry, the lame and the blind. 
To the streets, then, and lanes of the city repair, 
To the dismal retreats of crime, vice, and despair; 
Go to the highways and byways of sin, 
And the wretched and houseless compel to come in." 

Notwithstanding all the bluster of infidelity in the present 
day, I do not think that our chief danger arises from that 
source. Man is a being to whom worship of some kind is 
natural; he will have a religion of some kind, and the great 
tendency of the present day is to a religion of mere form. 

We can form but little conception of the struggle which an 
intelligent Jew, one like Paul, for example, had to go through, 
when he gave up the splendid forms and ritualistic pomps of 
Judaism for the severe simplicity of gospel truth. There were 
the crowds of priests, the smoking sacrifices, the ornaments of 
the temple all ablaze with gold, the high antiquity and divine 



88 GLAD TIDINGS. 

origin of all that met the eye, the fire still burning in the tem- 
ple that had not been extinguished for fifteen hundred years, 
with all that impressed the imagination, and fired the patriot- 
ism of a devout descendant of Abraham. 

If one would know something of the power of these things, 
let him enter some of those splendid cathedrals of Europe, 
where everything appeals to the senses. The lofty arched 
roof, the massive pillars, the highly ornamented windows, the 
white-robed officials, the chants, and the mighty swell of the 
organ, that seems to shake the old wall, gray with the lapse of 
ages ; all exert an overpowering influence upon the feelings 
and the imagination. 

The glory of the gospel is not such as appeals to the senses; 
it is the whisper of Divine love in the soul. It comes with a 
mighty power, for it is the power of God ; but it glares not 
upon the eye or the ear of the multitude — " comes not 
by observation," but does what nothing else can, — saves the 
soul. The holy, spiritual, awakening thought that comes to 
the sinner — he scarcely knows how — produces a greater revo- 
lution, than those that convulse nations and overthrow dynas- 
ties, because it saves his deathless soul. 

It is the gospel of love; it fills the heart to which enmity 
was natural, brim-full of love, and love is never ostentatious. 
When the mother watches by the cot of her dying babe, night 
after night, she does not proclaim her great sacrifices to the 
world, but loves to be alone with her God, and her heavy sor- 
row. In our Lord's days ritualism abounded, and professors 
of religion could not fast, nor pray, nor give alms, without 
letting all Jerusalem know what wonderfully good people they 
were. Our Lord had for the vilest transgressors that came to 
him in penitence, nothing but the tenderest words and the 
most loving promises ; but for these hypocrites he had terrible 
threatenings and righteous denunciations, that fell among 
them like thunder-bolts. 

The Gospel teaches to go forth doing good every day, 
because the loving heart supplies the constraining motive. It 
leads us to do good because we are God's children, not 



THE GOSPEL FEAST. 89 

because we wish to be thought so. It is the very nature 
of the good tree to bear fruit, but the chief source whence its 
strength and fruitfulness comes is out of sight. 

The Gospel is expansive and progressive in the human soul. 
The religion of rites, and forms, and ceremonies does not 
grow with our growth. It is not brighter and brighter to the 
perfect day. It goes on, age after age, depending upon the 
same performances. No matter what the circumstances, it 
goes on droning out its vain repetitions. The gospel has 
milk for babes, and strong meat for men. Sweet, gentle truths 
to woo the young; massive, strong doctrines for the most 
gifted intellects ; and promises great and precious, for tottering 
old age. 

The religion of ritualism is a strong device of Satan to sat- 
isfy the human soul with a sham. It says God does not look at 
the heart, but is verv solicitous about the outward appearance. 
It seeks to satisfy the soul that begins to feel its dreadful loss 
in departing from God, with the jingle and the rattle of a few 
childish toys. It seeks to represent God himself as well 
pleased with empty parade and gaudy trappings. It is the 
religion of human nature in its deepest depravity, and sends 
souls into eternity in teeming crowds, with lies not only in 
their right hands, but enveloping them like a garment. 

The soul enlightened from on high, convicted of sin by the 
Holy Spirit, will not long be held by a religion of form. You 
may please a hungry child with toys for a little, but as the 
hunger grows more clamorous and imperative, nothing but 
substantial bread will do. So none but Jesus can do helpless 
sinners good. He is the bread of life, and nothing but a per- 
sonal reception of him, by faith, can satisfy the hunger of the 
soul. It is a real feast, not a mere picture of one, to which he 
invites us. To hunger and thirst after righteousness, is the 
sure forerunner of that blessed state, where we are filled with 
the fulness of God, and where we shall awake in His like- 
ness. 

Much of the blessings of Christianity lie in the future, for 
" it doth not yet appear what we shall be ;" but real and imper- 



90 GLAD TIDINGS. 

ishable blessings are now in the Christian's possession. He is 
now God's Son, and prayer is speaking to his Father ; repent- 
ance is returning to his Father; faith is resting on the love of 
his Father ; and when he looks up to those heavens that seem 
to roof in our earth, and sees the myriads of stars that gleam 
in the darkness of night, his soul is thrilled with the thought 
of the vastness of his Father's possessions. 

One who rejoices in God in this relation, longs to bring all 
wanderers back to their Father. The heart touched by God's 
love, loves others ; just as the iron that has felt the power of 
the magnet, becomes itself magnetic. 

We see this in the Apostle John. Love was the very soul 
of his religion, the element in which he lived, the glory of his 
teaching and the charm of his society. We have heard of the 
sculptor, who seeing a rough, unhewn block of marble ex- 
claimed, " What a glorious statue dost thou conceal !" So the 
Christian looks upon the lowest, most degraded of human be- 
ings, and sees one capable of being made a child of God, an 
heir of heaven, a companion of angels. He knows that the 
roughest block of humanity can, by the Holy Spirit, be made 
into the likeness of Christ ; and for this he prays and labors. 

The Apostle, while rejoicing in his present privileges, looked 
forward to something greater. A rich man may adopt into 
his family a poor beggar boy picked up off the streets. He 
may have him washed, and dressed, and educated, and may 
permit him to call him father, and leave him all his property ; 
but there is one thing he cannot do, he cannot give him his 
nature, he cannot impart to him his own likeness. But when 
God adopts us into his family through Jesus, he makes us par- 
takers of his own nature, and impresses us with his image. 
Men take notice that we have been with Jesus. The spirit 
and the temper of the Holy One shines out, somewhat imper- 
fectly no doubt, but still so as to show the Divine relationship 
that has been formed. 

That which will so greatly add to the bliss of heaven is, 
that this likeness will be perfect. No sinful passion shall ever 
again fill the soul with sorrows and remorse. We shall do 



THE GOSPEL FEAST. g T 

good without sin being present with us, and the song of grateful 
love shall gush forth uninterrupted by a single improper thought 
or feeling. Oh, blessed hope ! The hope of being like Jesus ! 
How it should ennoble our lives now ! We should seek to be of 
one mind with God, hating what he hates, loving what he loves, 
judging of things by his standard, to be meek, loving, gentle and 
unselfish, as was the blessed Saviour. We should stand up bold 
and unflinching witnesses, as he was, and stooping to any work, 
however lowly, that he may do good to others. Think of being 
like Jesus and with Jesus forever. We have known many happy 
moments with Jesus and his people on earth, but they do not last. 
Sin comes like a great pall of darkness, and separates between 
God and us. But yonder eternity will be the crown of our glory. 
If we could look forward millions of ages and yet see an end to 
our enjoyment, it would cast a damp upon our bliss, a dark shadow 
over our brightness. But forever with the Lord, and forever like 
the Lord. Oh, what wondrous love is this ? To live as long as 
God lives, and with his mighty love overflowing in our hearts, 
and all for nothing, all of grace, free grace; surely if we can resist 
all this, and give up our powers to the love of the world, we can 
expect nothing but to hear, when we enter eternity, that terrible 
blast of condemnation, " Depart, ye cursed ! " 

A man who had been born blind had his eyes operated upon by 
a skillful oculist, so that he could gradually see objects around 
him. For the first time he looked upon the faces of his wife and 
children, his own face beaming with love. At last he exclaimed, 
" Oh, why have I seen these first before enquiring for him whose 
skill opened my eyes ; show me the doctor I " Thus the redeemed 
shall wish first to see Jesus. 



One of the most solemn, most searching, and most humbling 
questions is that from the lips of our Lord, " Lovest thou me?" 
It is a deep disgrace to us, a burning shame, that, after all he has 
done for us, he should still have to ask such a question. No 
wonder that amid our base ingratitude he causes the awful words 



9 2 GLAD TIDINGS. 

to roll over our heads like a peal of thunder : " If any man love 
not the Lcrd Jesus, let him be accursed." 

Christ's love, as revealed on the Cross, when believed on with 
the whole heart, is the only power that can sweep the world of 
its impurities. Wherever it is faithfully preached, it changes the 
whole aspect of society. Savages hear of it and it lifts them to 
the dignity of God's children. Idolaters hear of it, and their idol 
temples are deserted. It humbles the proud, and elevates the 
humble. It teaches citizens their rights and obligations, and rulers 
their solemn responsibilities. It emboldens the timid, and ren- 
ders invincible the brave. It smooths the wrinkles on the brow 
of care, binds up the broken heart, and dispels despair as it sits 
brooding over the desolations of the grave. It transforms the 
slave of passion and sin into Christ's freeman. 

The doctrine of Christ crucified penetrates into the haunts of 
vice in our cities, where misery in its most hideous forms appals 
the heart of the beholder ; and instantly there is a great change. 
It goes into the cell of the criminal whose soul is stained with 
crimes which no heart, undebased by deepest villainy, could even 
conceive of, and it melts his hard heart into tender contrition. 
Amid the roar of battle it comes to the dying soldier, giving him 
a peace that is unspeakable and full of glory. It comes to the 
sailor amid the shriek of the midnight tempest, when his proud 
ship is cast a naked hulk on the boundless deep, or when the rocks 
are strewn with the fragments of her perishing strength, and 
enables him to cast the anchor of his hope within the vail. In 
short, it comes to every human heart that will receive it, and im- 
parts a confidence that can never be shaken, world without end. 

A lady when dying heard some of her friends say in a whisper, 
" She is sinking fast," when she opened her eyes and said, " How 
can I sink through a rock ! " She felt that she was resting on 
The Rock of Ages. All who are not on that rock are on the 
shifting sand, which the storms of judgment will sweep from 
under them. Reader, many voices unite to urge you to come to 
Christ. The eternal Father says, " This is my beloved Son, hear 
ye Him." The Holy Spirit urges you to Christ, on the peril of 



THE GOSPEL FEAST. QJ 

your precious soul. Conscience lifts up its awful voice and calls 
you to flee from the wrath to come. The voices of loving ones, 
who have often prayed for you on earth, in tender memories 
from the eternity into which they have gone, urge you to come 
to the Saviour they love. A great cloud of witnesses encompass 
you around, and by the most tremendous motives urge you to a 
happy decision; and I now entreat you to come at once to our 
adorable Redeemer — the World's Hope. 



A SELECTION FROM THE CATALOGUE OF 

Evangelical Books, 

PUBLISHED BY 

IF 1 . HI. REYBLL, 

91 Washington Street, - - CHICAGO. 



FULL CATALOGUES FREE ON APPLICATION. 



Notes byC. H. M. — Genesis, $i; Exodus, $i; Leviticus, $i; Numbers, 
$i. The set of four volumes sent post paid for $3.50. 

The Notes on each book are complete in one volume, and are 
most precious and edifying expositions. 

Mr. D. L. Moody says of these books : " Some years since I had 
my attention called to C. H. M.'s notes, and was so much pleased 
and at the same time profited by the way they open up the Scripture 
truths, that I secured at once all the writings of the same author, 
and, if they could not be replaced would rather part with my entire 
library, excepting my Bible, than with these writings. They have 
been to me a very key to the Scriptures." 

Maj. D. W. Whittle says : " Under God they have blessed me 
more than any books, outside of the Bible itself, that I have ever 
read, and have led me to a love of the Bible that is proving an un- 
failing source of profit." 
Life and Times of David, or the Life of Faith Exemplified. ; being 
thoughts on the principal scenes in the life and times of David king 
of Israel. By C. H. M., author of " Notes on Genesis, Exodus, &c, 
&c." Third edition. Revised. 16 mo., 200 pp. Cloth, 75c. 
Grace and Truth, under twelve different aspects. By W. P. Mackay, A. 
M. Seventh edition. 12 mo., pp. 272; paper 50c; cloth, fine, $1.00. 

Mr. D. L. Moody says of this work: "I know of no book in 
print better adapted to aid in the work of him who would be a win- 
ner of souls, or to place in the hands of the unconverted." 

During the past four years Mr. Moody has given away over 10,000 
copies of this book to inquirers and young converts. 



Glad Tidings; a book for inquirers. By Robert Boyd, D. D., with 
Preface by D. L. Moody. 12 mo., 100 pp. Cloth, neat, 50c. 

A cheap edition in paper for circulation, 25c. This book has 
been used largely in connection with the great revival meetings, 
both in Great Britain and this land. Mr. Moody has used it largely 
in his work, giving away many thousand copies. 

My Inquiry Meeting; or, Plain Truths for Anxious Souls. By Robert 
Boyd, D. D., Author of " Glad Tidings," " Young Converts," &c. 
64 pp. 15c; cloth, 25c. 

For simplicity, clearness and force of statement we have met 
nothing that equals this little volume. We can think of no better 
service a pastor could render to Sunday School teachers and other 
guides of souls, than to secure their reading of these pages. Nor 
could inquirers have any better help in their search for truth. — The 
Interior. 

MR. MOODYS SERMONS. 

Great Joy. Containing Inter-Ocean verbatim report of Mr. Moody's Ser- 
mons and Prayer Meeting Talks, delivered in the Chicago Taber- 
nacle. Over 500 pages. Cloth, $2.00; paper, $1.00. 

Glad Tidings: being N. Y. Tribune reports of Sermons and Prayer 
Meeting Talks, by D. L. Moody, in the New York Hippodrome. 
500 pages. Cloth, $2.00 ; paper, $1.00. 

The Second Coming of Christ. ByD. L. Moody. Revised from original 
notes. 32 pages and cover. Price, 15c, or $1.25 per doz. 

We trust this pamphlet will be widely circulated, thus calling at- 
tention to this important subject and most precious truth. 

Inquiry Meetings. By Messrs. Moody and Whittle. Comprising, 
"How to Conduct Inquiry Meetings. By D. L. Moody," and " The 
Use of the Bible in Inquiry Meetings. By D. W. Whittle." 40 
Pages and cover. Price, 15c, or $1.25 per doz. 

How to Study the Bible. By D. L. Moody. Revised. Paper cover, 15c, 
$1.25 per doz.; cloth, flexible, 25c. 

Hints on Bible Marking. By Mrs. Stephen Menzes ; with Preface by 
D. L. Moody. 32 Pages. Paper, 15c, $1.25 per doz.; cloth, 25c. 

The Way and the Word. By D. L. Moody. Before leaving Chicago, 
Mr. Moody promised a new book to each of the young converts and 
inquirers who would send in their names at the great Tabernacle 
meetings. The book has been issued under the title of The Way 
and the Word, and is a neat little volume, in paper cover, contain- 
ing a treatise on Mr. Moody's favorite topic, Regeneration ; also his 
thoughts on Bible study ; the whole prefaced with a personal intro- 
duction by Mr. Moody. Ten thousand copies were ordered for 
distribution to the young converts and inquirers ; the names received 
amounting to nearly that number. 

64 Pages. Price, 25c, $2.00 per doz.; cloth, 40c. 



Regeneration; What Is It? Fifty-second thousand. Paper covers, ioc, 
75c. per doz. , flexible cloth, 25c. 

If a man is unsound on regeneration he is unsound on everything, 
and although regeneration or the new birth is taught so plainly in 
the third chapter of John, I don't believe there is any truth in the 
whole Bible that the Church and the world are so mixed up on, 
and in such great darkness about, as this great truth. — Extract from 
Mr. Moody s Address. 

The Gospel According to Moses, as seen in the Tabernacle and its various 
services. By George Rogers. New edition, 18 mo., 192 pp. 
Boards, 50c; cloth, 75c. 

The Jewish Temple. Its typical and spiritual meaning. By Geo. Rogers, 
author of " Gospel According to Moses," &c, &c. Paper, 25c; cloth, 
40c. Mr. Rogers has not attempted to solve the problem of con- 
struction, but following the course pursued in his work on the 
Tabernacle, he has tried to set forth the spiritual lesson to be learned 
from it. Those who have read his former book will not need urging 
to buy this, and to those who have not, we heartily recommend both. 

Life Truths, or Helps for Wayfarers. By J. Denham Smith. Con- 
tents : I. The Two Natures. II. III. The Two Natures. IV. 
Oneness with Christ. V. Sanctification. VI. Complete in Jesus. 
VII. Doctrine and Life. Square 32 mo., 232 pp. Cloth, 60c. 

Doubts Removed. By Cesar Malan, D. D. It contains the clearest 
statements and illustrations on the subject treated we have ever met 
with, and will be of great service to doubting Christians. 
Paper covers, 6c, 50c. per doz. 

The True Tabernacle. A series of Lectures on the Jewish Tabernacle 
and its typical signification. By Geo. C. Needham. Illustrated. 
Cloth, neat, $1.00. 

Mr. Needham's exposition of these Old Testament types have 
created a deep interest in Christian circles. The present series of 
lectures will prove a great help to Bible students. 

The Unseen World. A Concordance with notes. By Rev. W. J. Erd- 

MAN. Square 16 mo., 40 pp. Pamphlet, 20c. 

This small but comprehensive work is designed especially for 
those from whom much of the material on this subject is unavoid- 
ably hidden under the English translation. 



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